Robert Kagan, "Of Paradise and Power, America and Europe in the New World Order"

Type :

Book review

Pages :

5 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

05/17/2009

Category :

Political science

Sub category :

Political science

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Summary :

Introduction
Europe's safety after World War 2
Kagan's objective
Change in position in international stage
Kagan's thesis about the disparity of power between Europe and America
The US and European foreign policies in recent years
The divergence between the US and Europe
Last objection to Kagan's thesis
Conclusion

Abstract

robert kagan's Of paradise and power was published in January 2003. The book is in fact an extension of the author's article "power and Weakness" which appeared in the Policy Review in June 2002. In his book, kagan presents a very interesting point of view. He shows that, whether europeans or Americans want to accept it or not, everybody has to recognize objectively, that American and european interests are sharply diverging today and that the transatlantic relationship has changed after the end of the Cold War. kagan thinks "Americans are from Mars and europeans are from Venus" and this is unfortunately not a transitory situation: it has actually been developing in both American and european geopolitics since the collapse of the USSR and September 11th has only made it more obvious for the international community. The major reason for this divergence is the power gap between the two sides of the Atlantic. america's "power", that is its military capability, is not comparable to the european one. With its technology, its weapons and military forces, its finance, the US are much more powerful than the european Union, which seems "weak" today.