After 9/11

Front matter

After 9/11: Leading Political Thinkers about the World, the U.S. and Themselves

Barbara Budrich Publishers

After 9/11: Leading Political Thinkers about the World, the U.S. and Themselves

Contents

“Identify what the problem 18”... eeeeeeceeseeeseceneceeeeeeeneeneees 37 3 Zbigniew Brzezinski

“T say what is on my mind” oo eee eeeeceneceneeeeeeeneeeneeeneeeneees 47 4 Noam Chomsky

“9/11 created a very ‘teachable’ moment”... eee eeeeereeeeees 63 6 Francis Fukuyama

Preface

Thirty years ago, French philosopher Michel Foucault famously pronounced the intellectual dead. The United States of today proves him wrong. And while the nation’s leading thinkers engage in a vital and extensive debate, it is not a new debate. In fact, it was reignited forcefully in the aftermath of September 11, and it has not subsided ever since. Participants in the discourse differ widely, and they don’t shy away from conflict. They cover the entire political spectrum. All of them prominent figures in American public life, they include renowned academics and members of think tanks, political advisers, former and current members of government, authors, and journalists. Following the terror attacks, they have published their respective points of view, their attempts at explaining what happened, their suggestions what to make of it — always intent on reaching out to the broad educated public, and at times even far beyond their original sphere of influence.

To what end?

The best answers will be provided by the public intellectuals themselves. During a Research and Teaching Fellowship at Yale University in 2007/08, I conducted seventeen interviews from a specifically designed questionnaire. While the reader can thus compare various individual positions on single issues, each conversation also takes its own turn. As a whole, the transcripts capture an illuminating snapshot of the environment America’s professional thinkers are facing at the start of the 21" century. Each one has carefully established a public persona, and each one deserves recognition for their professional achievements. All of them defy rigid classification. Yet it was something else that turned each conversation into a unique experience: My interviewees’ charisma and openness to dialogue. Occasionally, their persuasive power was startling, and I found

10 Preface myself intrigued by their company although I strongly disagreed on the subject. More than anything else, though, what will stay with me was their contagious curiosity about the world.

In 1980, Foucault had remarked that “more and more is being said about intellectuals, and I don’t find it very reassuring.” Here I will let them speak for themselves.

Acknowledgments

My intellectual and practical debts in regard to this project are profound and finally unrepayable. Ultimately, After 9/11 owes the most to the seventeen thinkers who agreed to share their thoughts with me. Yet many others have provided substantial support throughout the project. Each of them, in his or her own way, helped me to achieve my goals.

My supervisor, Dietmar Schloss, devoted considerable time and energy to improving the organization and content of my manuscript. His substantive contributions and years of experience sharpened my analysis and leavened my prose, and I am grateful for everything he has done.

I have been able to draw on the experience of several of my colleagues and teachers, who have done their utmost to point me in the right direction. First and foremost, Martin Thunert provided valuable information and feedback, as well as helping to set the ball rolling for the book. For their suggestions and for allowing me to bounce ideas off of them, I would like to thank Detlef Junker, Mischa Honeck, Florian Pressler, and Elena Matveeva of the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA), John Lewis Gaddis and Seyla Benhabib of Yale, Jeremi Suri of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Stephen Wayne of Georgetown University, John Owens of the University of Westminster, Alastair Hamilton of the Warburg Institute, London, and Jagoda Marinić.

Styles Sass, Michael Shiels, as well as two unknown brave readers from Yale’s Writing Center and Heidelberg’s Graduate Academy ensured that my grammatical and typographical errors didn’t make it into the published text.

Sumi Jessien and Barbara Budrich provided key editorial advice in structuring the final manuscript. I am also grateful to them for copyediting. My agent, Swantje Steinbrück, was as good a critical reader of my manuscript as she was a guide through the decisions involved in ne-

12 Acknowledgments gotiating a book contract. I appreciate everything that they and their staff have done to make After 9/11 a reality. Thank you also to the HCA for generous financial support.

Finally, I would like to thank Jagoda, my partner, my critic, my love.

You taught me to believe in this.