The Bubble of American Supremacy
By George Soros
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
George Soros loathes George W Bush. That, in a few words, sums up this book. The renowned and controversial financier, philanthropist and active supporter of the “open society” sees the foreign policy adventures of the Bush government as a disaster for human rights, democracy, open societies and the economy. And he vows to do his best to see that Bush does not get re-elected.
Soros starts by challenging the assumption that the terrorist attacks on September 11 2001 changed the course of history by asking “why?”. Not, he argues, because of the enormity of the event, but by the way Bush and his government reacted. The “war on terrorism” was nothing more than a guise to implement a foreign policy programme rooted in an understanding of international relations based on power rather than law.
The Bush doctrine, Soros argues, is a crude new form of social Darwinism: market fundamentalism in economics and the forceful pursuit of United States supremacy. The invasion of Iraq was part of this doctrine.
The underlying mentality of American supremacy, Soros suggests, is a bubble that will burst disastrously for the US — and for the world. The long connection between military power and economic fundamentalism is highly suspect. It can corrupt both.
Though certainly not a neo-Marxist, Soros would agree that the neoconservative intellectuals (and advisers to Bush), who outlined a Project for the New American Century in the late 1990s, have strong economic ties to the military and an interest in increased military expenditure.
After 9/11 the US fell into a terrible trap. The purpose of 9/11 was probably to instigate a war between the West and Islam. So far, if Soros is right in his assessment, it has succeeded. It has set back peace processes and encouraged other countries to unleash their dirty, little “wars on terror” in their own back yards.
Is there an alternative? There is, says Soros, and it is called the open society. This is based on his theory of reflexivity and radical fallibility. Such a theory assumes we must treat our beliefs as provisionally true, while keeping them open to constant re-examination.
An open society holds itself open to improvement — it cannot accept economic, religious or political fundamentalisms, and must encourage people to pursue personal and common interests, recognising always that we might be wrong. The Bush doctrine and the ideologues of the Project for the New American Century deny this possibility.
Written with passion, informed by reason, Soros’s book is a clarion call to reject the Bush doctrine. Reminiscent at times of that other great American polemicist of European origin, Thomas Paine, Soros savages the sheer stupidity of current US foreign policy. Even more devastating is the fact that he writes not from the left, but from the heart of the establishment.