America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order

D. D. Murphey
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引用次数: 69

Abstract

America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke Cambridge University Press, 2004 The scholarly background of these two authors shows in the encyclopedic knowledge they bring to bear on their subject. Stefan Halper is a Fellow at Cambridge University, and a Senior Fellow in the Centre for International Studies; Jonathan Clarke is a Foreign Affairs Scholar at the CATO Institute in Washington, D.C. The great merit of this book is that it provides a detailed account of neo-conservative themes, key documents, origins, personalities, and supporting media and organizations. Because Halper and Clarke are not neo-conservatives, but rather critics of it, a conscientious reader will want to supplement America Alone by a generous reading of neo-conservative writing per se. Halper and Clarke refer us to Irving Kristol, Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea (1995); Robert Kagan and William Kristol (ed.s), Present Dangers: Cnsis and Opportunity in American Foreign and Defense Policy (2003), where contributions by several prominent authors make it "close to a neo-conservative canon"; David Frum and Richard Perle, An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror (2003); and a good many other books as listed in their bibliography. The ideas have come to rest, too, in certain key neo-conservative policy statements. One of the most comprehensive of these is the 1997 "Statement of Principles by the Project for the New American Century." Because Halper and Clarke are critics rather than acolytes, their book is necessarily not merely about neo-conservatism. Since a criticism presupposes a position from which the criticism is made, the authors' own mindscape is evident in the book. They bring their own baggage, good or bad, to the table. We will discuss that after we see what they tell us about neo-conservatism. The neo-conservative movement as described in America Alone brings to mind the statement Shakespeare has Cassius make about Julius Caesar: "Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus; and we petty men walk under his huge legs...." The neoconservatives are remarkable for their "presence." They command attention and exude intellectuality. Halper and Clarke tell how the early neo-conservatives - the "first generation" - got their start in a "brief association" with "the Trotskyist left in the 1930s." Alcove 1 of the cafeteria at the City College of New York was the site where "America's future neo-conservative intellectuals such as Daniel Bell, Nathan Glazer, Irving Kristol, Melvin Lasky, Seymour Martin Lipset, Seymour Melman, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Philip Selznick received enduring parts of their education." During that and the ensuing generation, this group and those who have found common cause with them have engaged in the most remarkable "networking" - a web of interlocking organizations, journals, media outlets, books, articles, open-letter signings, etc., that is powerfully reminiscent of the similar networking that occurred within the Left during the 1930s. The strategy of the "front organization" has been replicated, with each individual lending his reputation to countless outlets. The effect is to make the neo-conservative voice ubiquitous, and necessarily to push other voices to the fringe. For most of the lifetime of this reviewer, the "liberal-Left" dominated American media, so that "liberal bias in the media" was a matter of perennial complaint by those outside the Left. In recent years, however, the situation has changed dramatically. Now, it is neoconservative media that stand "bestride the world like a Colossus." Here are just a few the details supplied by Halper and Clarke: the Weekly Standard, for whom William Kristol (son of first-generation neoconservative Irving Kristol) has been editor since it was founded in 1995, is the "neo-conservative flagship publication." The American Jewish Committee, publisher of Commentary, made Norman Podhoretz the chief editor of that journal in 1959. …
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《孤独的美国:新保守主义者与全球秩序
《孤独的美国:新保守主义者和全球秩序》斯蒂芬·哈尔珀和乔纳森·克拉克剑桥大学出版社,2004年。这两位作者的学术背景体现在他们对自己的主题所带来的百科全书式的知识上。斯蒂芬·哈尔珀,剑桥大学研究员,国际研究中心高级研究员;乔纳森·克拉克(Jonathan Clarke)是华盛顿特区卡托研究所(CATO Institute)的外交事务学者。本书最大的优点在于,它对新保守主义的主题、关键文件、起源、人物以及支持媒体和组织提供了详细的描述。因为哈尔珀和克拉克不是新保守主义者,而是新保守主义者的批评者,一个认真的读者会想要通过大量阅读新保守主义作品本身来补充《孤独的美国》。哈尔珀和克拉克向我们推荐了欧文·克里斯托尔的《新保守主义:一种思想的自传》(1995);罗伯特·卡根和威廉·克里斯托尔(主编),《当前的危险:美国外交和国防政策中的危机与机遇》(2003年),其中几位著名作者的贡献使其“接近新保守主义经典”;大卫·弗罗姆和理查德·珀尔,《邪恶的终结:如何赢得反恐战争》(2003);还有很多其他的书都列在参考书目里。在某些关键的新保守主义政策声明中,这些观点也得到了印证。其中最全面的是1997年的“新美国世纪计划原则声明”。因为哈尔珀和克拉克是批评者而不是追随者,他们的书必然不仅仅是关于新保守主义的。由于批评的前提是提出批评的立场,因此作者自己的心态在书中很明显。他们带着自己的包袱,不管是好是坏。我们将在看完他们对新保守主义的看法后讨论这个问题。《孤独的美国》中描述的新保守主义运动让人想起莎士比亚让卡修斯对凯撒大帝的评论:“哎,老兄,他像巨人一样跨越了狭窄的世界;我们这些小人物在他巨大的腿下行走....”新保守主义者因其“存在”而引人注目。它们引人注目,散发着智慧。哈尔珀和克拉克讲述了早期的新保守主义者——“第一代”——是如何在与“20世纪30年代的托洛茨基主义左翼”的“短暂联系”中起步的。纽约市立学院自助餐厅的一间小亭子是“美国未来的新保守主义知识分子,如丹尼尔·贝尔、内森·格雷泽、欧文·克里斯托尔、梅尔文·拉斯基、西摩·马丁·利普塞特、西摩·梅尔曼、丹尼尔·帕特里克·莫伊尼汉和菲利普·塞尔兹尼克等人接受持久教育的地方”。在这一时期和随后的一代人中,这个群体和那些与他们有共同事业的人参与了最引人注目的“网络”——一个由连锁组织、期刊、媒体渠道、书籍、文章、公开信签名等组成的网络,这让人想起了20世纪30年代左派内部发生的类似网络。“幌子组织”的策略被复制了,每个人都把自己的名声借给了无数的网点。其结果是使新保守主义的声音无处不在,并必然将其他声音推向边缘。在笔者一生的大部分时间里,“自由左派”主导着美国媒体,因此“媒体中的自由主义偏见”是左翼以外的人长期抱怨的问题。然而,近年来,情况发生了巨大变化。如今,新保守主义媒体“像巨人一样跨越世界”。以下是哈尔珀和克拉克提供的一些细节:《旗帜周刊》自1995年创刊以来一直由威廉·克里斯托尔(第一代新保守主义者欧文·克里斯托尔的儿子)担任主编,是“新保守主义的旗舰刊物”。《评论》的出版商美国犹太人委员会于1959年任命诺曼·波德霍雷茨为该杂志的主编。...
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Journal of Social, Political, and Economic Studies
Journal of Social, Political, and Economic Studies Social Sciences-Political Science and International Relations
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期刊介绍: The quarterly Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies (ISSN 0193-5941), which has been published regularly since 1976, is a peer-reviewed academic journal devoted to scholarly papers which present in depth information on contemporary issues of primarily international interest. The emphasis is on factual information rather than purely theoretical or historical papers, although it welcomes an historical approach to contemporary situations where this serves to clarify the causal background to present day problems.
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