An Exploration Of Anti-Americanism In Europe After Cold War

After the Cold War, with the collapse of the two hostile camps, the American and Europe lost their common opponent, the contradictions and differences between them became bitter and bitter which is widely reflected in the political, economic and cultural fields. Especially after the "9·11" terrorist attacks and the Iraq war, the American's international image is getting worse. The fear and dislike emotion of the European countries to American's foreign policies strengthened the anti-Americanism in Europe into an unprecedented situation. The anti-Americanism became a worldwide issue, which has become an important and unique political phenomenon in international relations.Based on etymological study and conceptual analysis, this paper got an explicit meaning and the judging standard of the anti-Americanism. Through this we can achieve a more complete notion of the anti-Americanism; At the same time, we can make a distinction of the types of European anti-Americanism in the different areas such as economy, policy and culture; Also we can date back the historic evolvement of it to explore the root of the anti-Americanism, with elaborating on the manifestations of anti-Americanism so as to reveal its profound impact and possible future trends of development.From the survey of the history of different periods of Anti-Americanism in Europe, it shows that the anti-Americanism has a long history in Europe. Early anti-Americanism in Europe belongs to the Anti-America stage. According to the harsh natural condition and the theory that the American will degenerate under such condition, the Western European intellectuals come to the conclusion that America can neither produce any valuable political system nor culture; After World War II, European countries were badly hurt, they were annoyed by American formalist support but actually the offensive control, so the confliction between them happened frequently. But during the Cold War, in order to confront the common enemy—the Soviet Union, they had to combined together; After the Cold War, they lost their common enemy then the confliction between them became the anti-Americanism which reflected in every areas especially the political and economic areas; With the entering of the 21st century, the Bush administration's hegemony in conducting foreign affairs under the guidance of the policy of unilateralism was opposed strongly by European countries.By researching the history and manifestations of anti-Americanism, we can not ignore it with some regularity features: Firstly, the European anti-Americanism widely reflected in the political, economic and cultural fields; Secondly, European anti-Americanism is more moderate in the behavior; Lastly, it is the America itself who has caused the European anti-Americanism; In the following period, whether the America can meet the requirements of the times to reflect on its own political ideas, to adjust the external politic strategy, to amendment diplomatic logic and its spirit, is the key to solve this issue.From the origin of the European anti-Americanism, we can find out that the most important reason to interpret the prevalence of the anti-Americanism in Europe is the mix up of the anti-Americanism and the objective historical trend of globalization, unilateralism of the American's political ideas and foreign policy of hegemony. As for the future trend of the anti-Americanism, we tend to hold such an opinion: Because of the change of the self interests and the object situation of both the two parts, and they have different conception on policies, to some extent the relationship between Europe and America has experienced a qualitative change, it is impossible to get back to the sate before the end of Cold War.We should recognize the other facet of this issue, that is the Europe and American shares the same social political system, they have the same belief in values, have the same interests in national security, also the exchange in economic lead to the interweave of their interests. In the foreseeable future, these factors are hard to be changed, they won't go their separate ways; at the same time, the power contrast is of great disparity, so it's impossible to overestimate the influence of American to the European countries.But from the analysis of the anti-Americanism foreground we can easily find out that the anti-Americanism is closely relate to the foreign policy of America. The key of the direction of anti-Americanism is America itself. It will be existed in a long period if America doesn't change its political conception and the American hegemony.