At the request of the State Department, I spent a few days in Denmark this spring to give a few lectures on anti-Americanism, more precisely, on “Anti-Americanism since the end of the cold war and the rise of global terror.” My credentials for this undertaking may be found in two books, one which I wrote, the other I edited: Anti-Americanism: Critiques at Home and Abroad (1992, 1995) and Understanding Anti-Americanism: Its Origins and Impact at Home and Abroad (2004). Presumably somebody in the State Department was aware of these books and their message.

I came to the conclusion quite a while ago that anti-Americanism is not simply or largely a response to what the United States does but rather to what it is, what it represents. I further argued that anti-Americanism can and should be distinguished from the well-founded critiques of U.S. foreign policies, the defects of Ame ...