Anti-Europeanism, Anti-European sentiment, and Europhobia are political terms used in a variety of contexts, implying sentiment or policies in opposition to Europe.
In the context of racial or ethno-nationalist politics, this may refer to the dislike, hatred, prejudice, mistreatment and/or discrimination against/toward the culture or peoples of Europe. In the shorthand of "Europe" (a British usage, standing for the European Union or European integration), it may refer to Euroscepticism, criticism of policies of European governments or the European Union. [1] In the context of United States foreign policy, it may refer to the geopolitical divide between "transatlantic", "transpacific" and "hemispheric" (Pan-American) relations.
In the United Kingdom, an island country in Europe, "Europhobia" refers to negative attitudes towards mainland Europe, either in the context of anti-German sentiment or of anti-Catholicism, [2] or, more recently, of Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom. [3]
American exceptionalism in the United States [4] has long led to criticism of European domestic policy (such as the size of the welfare state in European countries) [5] and foreign policy (such as European countries that did not support the 2003 US invasion of Iraq). [6]
Anti-Americanism is a term that can describe several sentiments and positions including opposition to, fear of, distrust of, prejudice against or hatred toward the United States, its government, its foreign policy, or Americans in general. Anti-Americanism can be contrasted with pro-Americanism, which refers to support, love, or admiration for the United States.
The Kingdom of France was the first friendly country of the new United States in 1778. The 1778 Treaty of Alliance between the two countries and the subsequent aid provided from France proved decisive in the American victory over Britain in the American Revolutionary War. France, however, was left heavily indebted after the war, which contributed to France's own revolution and eventual transition to a republic.
Pan-Americanism is a movement that seeks to create, encourage, and organize relationships, an association, and cooperation among the states of the Americas, through diplomatic, political, economic, and social means.
Anti-French sentiment is the fear of, discrimination against, prejudice of, or hatred towards France, the French people, French culture, the French government or the Francophonie. It has existed in various forms and in different countries for centuries. The phenomenon has been strongest in Belgium, Britain and Germany, and was often expressed in literature and the popular medium. It is also a major factor in some Canadian cultures.
Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom is a continuum of belief ranging from the opposition to certain political policies of the European Union to the complete opposition to the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union. It has been a significant element in the politics of the United Kingdom (UK). A 2009 Eurobarometer survey of EU citizens showed support for membership of the EU was lowest in the United Kingdom, alongside Latvia and Hungary.
Today, Germany and the United States are close and strong allies. In the mid and late 19th century, millions of Germans migrated to farms and industrial jobs in the United States, especially in the Midwest. Later, the two nations fought each other in World War I (1917–1918) and World War II (1941–1945). After 1945 the U.S., with the United Kingdom and France, occupied Western Germany and built a demilitarized democratic society. West Germany achieved independence in 1949. It joined NATO in 1955, with the caveat that its security policy and military development would remain closely tied to that of France, the UK and the United States. While West Germany was becoming a Western Bloc state closely integrated with the U.S. and NATO, East Germany became an Eastern Bloc satellite state closely tied to the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. After communist rule ended in Eastern Europe amid the Revolutions of 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany was reunified and the allied powers subsequently restored full sovereignty to Germany with the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany. The reunified Federal Republic of Germany became a full member of the European Union, NATO and one of the closest allies of the United States. Since 2022 Germany has been working with NATO and the European Union to give aid to Ukraine in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the process Germany is sharply reducing its dependence on Russian oil and gas. Germany has the third-largest economy in the world, after the U.S. and China. Today, both the countries enjoy a "special relationship".
European nationalism is a form of pan-nationalism based on a pan-European identity. It is considered minor since the National Party of Europe disintegrated in the 1970s.
Left-wing terrorism or far-left terrorism is terrorism motivated by left-wing or far-left ideologies, committed with the aim of overthrowing current capitalist systems and replacing them with communist or socialist societies. Left-wing terrorism can also occur within already socialist states as criminal action against the current ruling government.
This is a list of topics related to racism:
Criticism of United States foreign policy encompasses a wide range of opinions and views on the perceived failures and shortcomings of American foreign policy and actions. Some Americans view the country as qualitatively different from other nations and believe it cannot be judged by the same standards as other countries; this belief is sometimes termed American exceptionalism. This belief was particularly prevalent in the 20th century. This belief became less dominant in the 21st century as the country has become more divided politically and has made highly controversial foreign policy decisions such as the Iraq War. Nevertheless, the United States is an extremely powerful country and is still generally considered a world superpower from an economic, military, and political point-of-view, and it has sometimes disregarded international norms, rules, and laws in its foreign policy.
Third World socialism is an umbrella term for many movements and governments of the 20th century— all variants of socialism— that have taken place in numerous less-developed countries. There have been many leaders of this practice and political philosophy which remained strong until at least the 1990s, including: Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Buddhadasa, Fidel Castro, Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Juan Domingo Perón, Modibo Keïta, Walter Lini, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Jawaharlal Nehru, Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Sukarno, Ahmed Sékou Touré and other socialist leaders of the Third World who saw socialism as the answer to a strong and developed nation.
The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia is a geopolitical book by Aleksandr Dugin. Its publication in 1997 was well received in Russia; it has had significant influence within the Russian military, police forces, and foreign policy elites, and has been used as a textbook in the Academy of the General Staff of the Russian military. Powerful Russian political figures subsequently took an interest in Dugin, a Russian political analyst who espouses an ultra-nationalist and neo-fascist ideology based on his idea of neo-Eurasianism, who has developed a close relationship with Russia's Academy of the General Staff.
Anti-American sentiment in Pakistan has been evident through public demonstrations and burning of the flag of the United States. When measured in 2009 Pakistan was amongst the countries with the strongest such antipathy. According to Anatol Lieven, anti-American sentiment in Pakistan is characterised more by political hostilities rather than racial or religious undertones.
Anti-Western sentiment, also known as anti-Atlanticism or Westernophobia, refers to broad opposition, bias, or hostility towards the people, culture, or policies of the Western world.
Anti-American sentiment in Iran is not new; the chant "Death to America" has been in use in Iran since at least the Islamic revolution in 1979, along with other phrases often represented as anti-American. A 1953 coup which involved the CIA was cited as a grievance. State-sponsored murals characterised as anti-American dot the streets of Tehran. It has been suggested that under Ayatollah Khomeini anti-Americanism was little more than a way to distinguish between domestic supporters and detractors, and even the phrase "Great Satan" which has previously been associated with anti-Americanism, appears to now signify either the United States or the United Kingdom.
Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is opposition to imperialism or neocolonialism. Anti-imperialist sentiment typically manifests as a political principle in independence struggles against intervention or influence from a global superpower, as well as in opposition to colonial rule. Anti-imperialism can also arise from a specific economic theory, such as in the Leninist interpretation of imperialism, which is derived from Lenin's 1917 work Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. People who categorize themselves as anti-imperialists often state that they are opposed to colonialism, colonial empires, hegemony, imperialism and the territorial expansion of a country beyond its established borders.
Anti-American sentiment in Germany is the dislike of the American government or people present in Germany. Anti-Americanism has been present in Germany throughout history with several notable incidents. Anti-Americanism was advanced by local leaders under the influence of the former Soviet Union, during the Cold War in East Germany, with dissenters being punished. In West Germany, this sentiment was generally limited to left wing politicians.
America Against the World: How We Are Different and Why We Are Disliked is a non-fiction book that was written by Andrew Kohut and Bruce Stokes in 2007 about United States foreign policy and the causes of dislike of Americans in other countries. Kohut is a former president of the American Association for Public Opinion Research and the National Council on Public Polls.
Pro-Americanism describes support, love, or admiration for the United States, its government and economic system, its foreign policy, the American people, and/or American culture, typically on the part of people who are not American citizens or otherwise living outside of the United States. In this sense, it differs from Americanism, which can generally only be adhered to by American citizens or residents, although adherents of any of these may subscribe to overlapping concepts, such as American exceptionalism. Pro-Americanism is contrasted with Anti-Americanism, which is the fear or hatred of things American.
Rumsfeld's disdain is as old as America, an extension of Europe, which in a certain sense founded itself as the anti-Europe.
As Libération reports with some shock, after centuries during which the mere mention of la France was 'enough to evoke notions of elegance and refinement' (especially in American trailer parks) suddenly the word 'French' has 'become a dirty word.'
On the economic front, the United States has produced consistently higher growth rates and lower unemployment than many nations in Europe. Some U.S. commentators blame the excessive regulations imposed by the European Community. Others say Europeans are plain lazy. "French voters are trying to preserve a 35-hour workweek in a world where Indian engineers are ready to work a 35-hour day," wrote New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman earlier this month.
The age of wars of national liberation, of massacres and countermassacres, of anti-European propaganda and anticolonial rhetoric dawned in Latin America around 1810. There, as in Greece — grave of many illusions — or later in Italy, nationalists depended on foreign aid, or on the incompetence of the power they challenged.
Continentalist definitions presented a fervent anti-European thinking." Antenor Orrego: "European traditions in Latin America have been even more destructive for the well-being of the continent than US imperialism. European decadence and vices have to be replaced by 'authentic americanism.'" Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre: "Marxism was a too Eurocentric theory to be applied in Latin American circumstances.
Foreign loans and predatory bankers by the 1870s had wrecked Egyptian finances and were tearing holes in the Egyptian political fabric. The Anglo-French dual financial control, designed to safeguard the foreign bondholders and to restore Egypt as a good risk, provoked anti-European feeling.
Algeria presented France with a set of tactical and political problems as different as the North African terrain differed from that of Indochina. Politically, Algeria was an integral part of the French Republic rather than a colony. Its native Berber and Arab people were technically French citizens. But discrimination was rife, and the European immigrants, the "pieds-noirs," had a stranglehold on local government, owned most of the arable land, and controlled the police. When Arabs and Berbers were belatedly allowed to vote for half of a constituent provincial assembly in 1948 and 1951, blatant fraud gave the pied-noir candidates a sweeping victory. The resulting anti-European riots were savagely repressed at a cost of thousands of lives.
If anti-European and anti-colonial terrorism in Africa had produced good results in the end for Africa, anti-American and anti-Zionist terrorism in the Middle East has not yet found its moment of triumph. Both the Middle East and Africa have been paying a price for the anti-American terrorism. The violent price which the Middle East is paying is obvious, especially in Palestine, Iraq and in neighboring Afghanistan. What is the price which Africa is paying for terrorism against the United States?
We have to distinguish between legitimate, informed criticism of the EU or current European attitudes and some deeper, more settled hostility to Europe and Europeans as such... Anti-Europeanism is not symmetrical with anti-Americanism... [which] is a real obsession for entire countries, notably for France, as Jean-François Revel has recently argued.