Response to Pfaff and Sterns articles.
When reading the articles for the second time, I felt the theme of history stood out more than the theme of American hegemony, in its relation to the present and future. Stern delves into the history of Europe in order to understand the present. Looking at the war on Iraq, France and Germany¡¯s justifications of their stance on the war in Iraq was partly based on their history. They repeatedly expressed their ¡°commitment to human rights, fruit of the lessons of the past.¡±(Stern) But with this surge of American Hegemony, that the International world believes will have many obvious consequences; one might ask why the U.S has learnt nothing from the past. Over the semester from delving into European history, I learnt that there are different histories, and International players are not very good at learning from one another¡¯s, but from their own. Today we cannot simply be concerned with nationalism, but Internationalism, the interplay of all histories. The Americans have had few confrontations on their own soil over the past 200 years, thus as Pfaff states, America has ¡°historical optimism and deep belief in progress that is always a force in American thought, an optimism that scarcely imagines the possibility of failure.¡±(Pfaff) So do nations have to fall hard in order to avoid a repetition of history? Perhaps the answer is, that in order to have a peaceful future, there are some who will still have to develop a history filled with hardship.
Today we have new philosophies and the phenomenon of globalization is occurring at a faster pace. We are not in the same social, economic or political setting as we were 60 years ago as Stern states, "the huge economic inequality among nations within and outside Europe have brought about demographic changes that we subsume under the term 'multicultural societies.'" We are in the age faced with national security, worldwide terrorism and new orthodoxies. But these new developments are very much based on the old frameworks. Therefore I am convinced that referring to history can help International players today make better, more informed decisions today.
From reading these articles once again, I can only arrive at the conclusion that in order to attain some level of peace and stability in this world that it is time for everyone to learn and understand the history of the world and to really attempt to learn from both their own actions and the actions of others. After taking history 151, I have only become frustrated to see how history is once again repeating itself. You can find hints of Bush¡¯s current plans and actions today, in not only during the Cold War, but also at the time of Napoleon. If he doesn¡¯t go back and delve into his history books, the only alternative way for him to learn will be to be part of an America with a future of deep despair and hardship.