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
American
social institutions, and the massive inanities of
American popular culture, among other things. I also pointed
out that anti-Americanism is in part a product of a
timeless and universal scapegoating impulse which finds a
very plausible target at the present time in the only
superpower with a global reach and visibility that continues
to attract millions of immigrants each
year. There is finally the justified identification of the
United States with modernity and its numerous problematic by
products—further cause for apprehension and
ambivalence.

I knew nothing about this speakers’ program, why Denmark was
selected, and how many other countries