The Irony of Manifest Destiny
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redefined “on our terms” (Bush), 105
religion blamed for, 196n3
religious warfare, purpose of, 26–27
secular vs. religious, 27
shift from defense to fantasies of omnipotence, 172
war on terror. See also Afghan-Pakistan war; Iraq war; terrorism
American interests and goals, 165–170
“clash of civilizations” theory, 104–110
new caliphate notion and, 134–136
as parody of Cold War, 82–83
as product of ignorance and political confusion, 84
theory of inborn Islamic violence, 123
Trotskyism and, 37n
unexplained, 109–110
Washington, George, 44, 46, 48
Waziristan, 138
Wedgwood, C. V., 32
West, U.S., 58–59, 69
Western civilization, size of, 106
Westphalian system, 7, 7n, 136
Wharton, Edith, 55
Wilson, Woodrow, 34, 67–68, 70–74, 71n, 168
Winthrop, John, 23n, 44
Wood, Ralph C., 51
world order, new, 10
World Trade Center attack (1993), 139
World War I, 34, 68, 70–74
World War II, 74–75
Yemen, 143
Young Turk movement, 119, 121
Yugoslav wars, 38, 182–183
Zakaria, Rafia, 147
A Note on the Author
William Pfaff was born in Iowa, grew up in Georgia, and served in infantry and Special Forces units of the U.S. Army during and after the Korean War. He received a B.A. degree in the Philosophy of Literature and in Political Studies from the University of Note Dame.
He has been an editor of Commonweal magazine, an executive of the political warfare organization the Free Europe Committee, one of the earliest members of the Hudson Institute, and subsequently deputy director of its European affiliate in Paris, Hudson Research Europe.
From 1971 to 1992 he contributed more than seventy “Reflections” on political matters to William Shawn’s New Yorker. He is also a longtime contributor to the New York Review of Books. He wrote a featured and syndicated editorial page column for the International Herald Tribune from 1978 until 2003, when his columns concerning the invasion of Iraq led to a break with the newspaper’s new owners, the New York Times Company, who ruled that the Herald Tribune could no longer publish his articles on matters of American foreign policy and foreign relations.
In 2006 the American Academy of Diplomacy in Washington gave him its Arthur Ross Award for Distinguished Analysis of Foreign Affairs, saying, “Few can rival his impact on thinking about the deepest dilemmas of foreign policy and of prime movers in human society. We are inspired by his moral vision of the proper uses of power and limits on its abuse.”
The Irony of Manifest Destiny is his ninth book. His Barbarian Sentiments was a finalist for the 1989 National Book Award, and in French translation won the City of Geneva’s annual Prix du Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
He is married to the former Carolyn Cleary, a writer and gardener. They have two children and five grandchildren.