By Brian Stout
Last month I received a phone call from my eleven-year-old cousin, who wanted my thoughts for a class paper on "what it means to be American." The last two years have borne witness to an often rancorous debate over that very subject, a debate that played out on a global stage. Discussions of "American exceptionalism" prompted proud proclamations from this side of the Atlantic and engendered skepticism abroad. After all, what does make America so special?
On Election night, America offered one answer to that question, placing its hopes and its future in the hands of Barack Obama, our first African-American president. Tears of joy and shouts of happiness at a uniquely American achievement quickly spread beyond our borders, spawning images of shared euphoria across Europe from Paris to Athens. Common to both celebrations, though - those here and abroad - was a familiar refrain: "Only in America."
As I watched Parisians share in the Obamania, I couldn't help but ask the obvious question: could it happen there? Could they too elect a minority to the highest office in the land? Could an Algerian descendant occupy the Palais de l'Élysée? Could a second-generation Turk become German chancellor? Is Fortress Europe ready for a changing world?
For all the talk of inclusion and universality expressed in the concept of the European Union, Europeans remain deeply skeptical of the multicultural promise. Just two months before Americans roundly rejected the fear-mongering insinuations of the "Obama is a Muslim" variety, Austrians ushered into power two far-right parties campaigning explicitly on xenophobic rhetoric. Austrian far-right leader Jorg Haider has passed on, but his legacy remains. Likewise, exclusionary nationalistic parties increasingly influence the mainstream in Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Lithuania, and Belgium. Indeed, with European Union elections looming next June, many Europeans express real concern that the xenophobic right will make gains in EU parliament.
Europeans now face the task of defining for themselves what it means to be French, or German, or Swiss, or Greek in a modern multiethnic world. And indeed, against the backdrop of EU expansion discussions, what does it mean to be European?
Talking with my young cousin, we struggled to define those constitutive features of American democracy that set us apart. We rejected narrow notions of race, national origin, class, and even language - none quite seemed to capture all that the American Dream embodies. Increasingly, we found ourselves returning to the aspirational language of our nation's founding: a nation dedicated not only to equality, life, and liberty, but also to the pursuit of happiness. The American Dream is at its core an ideology of hope. Small wonder the emotive power of Obama's personal narrative and the promise he seems to represent: the man is the American Dream.
What is the European Dream? Does the European Left have an answer to Haider's apocalyptic vision? Now it is America's turn to look to Europe for an answer: who is Next Europe?
Brian Stout is a graduate student in the IR/Conflict Management program at the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C.
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The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Johns Hopkins University.
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