No Man Is Rich Enough to Buy Back His Past: Perceptions of the US

Anti-Americanism appears to be growing in Europe and in the global south. In western Europe (particularly in Germany and France), anti-Americanism in public discourse, often linked with anti-war sentiments and convictions that Ukraine is merely a proxy for the US, can echo Russian propaganda. Pacifistic Europeans may misinterpret US isolationism as US anti-imperialism with damaging outcomes for transatlantic relations, and European security. In the global south, where historical experience has already coloured views on the west and its US leadership, China and Russia are happy to further tarnish America’s international reputation. Their gaining of influence at the expense of the US may be a serious security threat for the west.

Speakers

Faisal J Abbas

Editor-in-Chief of Arab News

Steven Erlanger

Chief Diplomatic Correspondent for Europe at The New York Times

Laure Mandeville

Senior Reporter with Le Figaro

Constanze Stelzenmüller

Director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution

Siddharth Varadarajan

Journalist and Founding Editor of The Wire

Moderator

Susan B Glasser

Staff Writer at The New Yorker

How can the tide of anti-US sentiment be turned in western democracies and in the countries of the global south? Can America compete with the overtures of Russia and China? What can America’s allies do?

“No man is rich enough to buy back his past.” (Popular rendition of “Even you are not rich enough, Sir Robert, to buy back your past. No man is.”)

Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband (1908).