Paul Berman is an American author and journalist who writes on politics and literature. His articles have been published in
The New RepublicThe New Republic is an American magazine of politics and the arts. It is published semimonthly and has a circulation of approximately 60,000. The editor-in-chief is Martin Peretz and the current editor is Franklin Foer...
,
The New York Times Book ReviewThe New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The New York Times has published a book review section...
and
SlateSlate is an English-language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft, as part of MSN. On December 21, 2004, it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
. He is also the author of several books, most notably
A Tale of Two Utopias and
Terror and Liberalism.
Berman received his undergraduate education from
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
, where he graduated in 1971 with a BA and MA in American history. He has reported on
Nicaragua'sNicaragua officially the Republic of Nicaragua , is a representative democratic republic. It is the largest country in Central America with an area of 130,373 km
2. The country is bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The Pacific Ocean lies to the west of...
civil wars, Mexico's elections, and the Czech Republic's
Velvet RevolutionThe Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the Communist government. It is seen as one of the most important of the Revolutions of 1989.On November 17, 1989, a Friday, riot police suppressed a peaceful student demonstration...
. Currently he is a senior fellow at the
World Policy InstituteThe World Policy Institute, a non-partisan source of informed policy leadership for more than four decades, develops and champions innovative policies that require a progressive and global point of view...
, a professor of journalism and distinguished writer in residence at
New York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian, research university in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, and a member of the editorial board of the intellectual magazine
DissentDissent is an intellectual quarterly edited by Michael Walzer and Michael Kazin. Founded in 1954 by a group of New York Intellectuals, which included Irving Howe, Lewis A...
. Berman's influence has seen him pejoratively described as a "Philosopher King" of the liberal hawks.
Totalitarianism and Islamic Fundamentalism
In
Terror and Liberalism, Berman suggests that the appeal of totalitarian movements emanated from
liberalismLiberalism is the belief in the importance of individual freedom. This belief is widely accepted today throughout the world, and was recognized as an important value by many philosophers throughout history...
's apparent failure in the aftermath of the First World War. Movements like
FascismFascism, , comprises a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology and a corporatist economic ideology developed in Italy. Fascists believe that nations and/or races are in perpetual conflict whereby only the strong can survive by being healthy, vital, and by asserting themselves in...
,
NazismNazism, known officially in German as National Socialism , is the totalitarian ideology and practices of the Nazi Party or National Socialist German Workers’ Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.Nazism is often considered...
, Falangism, and
CommunismCommunism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general. Karl Marx posited that communism would be the final stage in human...
all share, according to Berman, two essential similarities. Firstly, they envision themselves as a force being attacked by barbarians who can only be defended by the internal purification of the movement. Berman sees the Communist striving for ideological purity, the Falangist pursuit of religious purity, and the Nazi pursuit of racial purity as being related efforts in this regard. Together with this purifying impulse, Berman argues that these totalitarian movements share a similar
nihilistNihilist may refer to* a person who believes human existence has no objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. See nihilism* Nihilist movement, a Russian political and cultural movement* Nihilist , a Swedish death metal band...
strand.
Berman then tries to trace these commonalities between the various totalitarian ideologies into the modern Islamic world. He splits Islamic thought into two broad categories:
Pan-ArabismPan-Arabism is a movement for unification among the peoples and countries of the Arab World, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea. It is closely connected to Arab nationalism which asserts that the Arabs constitute a single nation. The idea was at its height during the 1960s...
and
Islamic fundamentalismIslamic fundamentalism Arabic: usul , is a term used to describe religious ideologies seen as advocating a return to the "fundamentals" of Islam: the Quran and the Sunnah.Definitions of the term vary...
. Pan-Arabist movements like the Ba'ath Party, he suggests, were influenced by traditional European totalitarian thought. In the Islamic fundamentalist movement, Berman sees the re-emergence of the nihilist strand in the form of suicide bombings and the celebration of martyrdom.
Several intellectuals have cited Berman's influence on their thinking. British writer,
Nick CohenNick Cohen is a British journalist, author, and political commentator. He is currently a columnist for The Observer and the TV critic for the magazine Standpoint. He used to write for the Evening Standard and the New Statesman, until he departed and sued the magazine...
, in his switch to support for the wider
war on terrorThe War on Terrorism is the common term for the military, political, legal and ideological conflict against what the effort's leaders describe as Islamic terrorism and Islamic militants, and was specifically used in reference to operations by the...
, cited
Terror and Liberalism as a major influence:
This approach has not been without its critics.
Anatol LievenAnatol Lieven is a British author, journalist, and policy analyst. He is presently a Senior Researcher (Peter Paul) Anatol Lieven (28 june 1960) is a British author, journalist, and policy analyst. He is presently a Senior Researcher (Peter Paul) Anatol Lieven (28 june 1960) is a British author,...
of the
New America FoundationThe New America Foundation is a non-profit public policy institute and think tank located in Washington, D.C.. It was founded in 1998 by Ted Halstead, Sherle Schwenninger, Michael Lind and Walter Russell Mead....
has pejoratively labeled Berman a "liberal hawk" and attacks him for "[promoting] and [justifying] the most dangerous aspect of the Bush Administration's approach to the war on terrorism: the lumping together of radically different elements in the Muslim world into one homogeneous enemy camp."
Iraq
Berman argues that the
2001 invasion of AfghanistanThe War in Afghanistan is an ongoing coalition conflict which began on October 7, 2001, as the British military participated in the US military's Operation Enduring Freedom that was launched in response to the September 11 attacks...
and the
2003 invasion of IraqThe 2003 invasion of Iraq, was led by the United States, backed by British forces and smaller contingents from Australia, Denmark, Poland and Spain. Four countries participated with troops during the initial invasion phase, which lasted from March 20 to May 1...
were justified by the doctrine of "
liberal interventionismHumanitarian intervention refers to armed interference in one state by another state with the objective of ending or reducing the suffering of the population within the first state....
": intervention to safeguard and promote liberal democratic freedoms. Berman has defended the Iraq war as "a logical place to begin" the "war on terrorism". In 2004, he wrote in
DissentDissent is a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or an entity...
, "If only people like you would wake up, you would see that war against the radical Islamist and Baathist movements, in Afghanistan exactly as in Iraq, is war against fascism." While critical of the Bush administration's justification of the Iraq war on the grounds of
weapons of mass destructionThe term weapon of mass destruction is often used to describe a weapon that can kill large numbers of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general....
, he warned "[Saddam's] weapons programs are not a fiction." In 2003, addressing criticism of George Bush's articulation of the reasons for going to war, he urged liberals, "And a cold analysis, I believe, ought to lead liberals and people on the left to support the effort to overthrow Saddam, and to push for a genuine campaign to establish a liberal society in Iraq and elsewhere, in countries that have fallen into the totalitarian trough." Over concerns that the Iraq war would mean breaching international law, Berman wrote, "We have had to choose between supporting the war, or opposing it—supporting the war in the name of antifascism, or opposing it in the name of some kind of concept of international law. Antifascism without international law; or international law without antifascism. A miserable choice—but one does have to choose, unfortunately."
Reflecting on the Iraq war in 2007, Berman wrote in the
New York Review of Books, "I approved on principle the overthrow of Saddam. I never did approve of Bush's way of going about it. In the run-up to the war, I became, on practical grounds, ever more fearful that, in his blindness to liberal principles, Bush was leading us over a cliff…It is true and it is a matter of satisfaction to me that, in the years since then, I have not made a career of saying 'I told you so.'"
On Israel, Berman has further argued that "anti-Zionism, the true origin of which is anti-Semitism, the assumption that the Jews are the center of the world and therefore the center of the world's evil."
History of the 1968 Generation
Berman's
A Tale of Two Utopias and
Power and the Idealists are the first two parts of a history of the so-called Generation of 1968 (of which he was a member). He argues that packaged together with the liberal ideals in this movement were decidedly disturbing elements.
Joschka FischerJoseph Martin "Joschka" Fischer was German foreign minister and Vice Chancellor in the government of Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005. He was a leading figure in the German political party Alliance '90/The Greens, and according to opinion polls, he was the most popular politician in Germany for...
, for example, the 1968 activist who would later become a leading figure in the German Green Party and Foreign Minister, decided that there was in fact the presence of
anti-SemiticAntisemitism is prejudice against or hostility towards Jews, often rooted in hatred of their ethnic background, culture, or religion....
impulses in this movement when he saw a fellow activist participate in the
Entebbe hijackingOperation Entebbe was a counter-terrorism hostage-rescue mission carried out by the Israel Defense Forces at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on the night of 3 July and early morning of 4 July 1976. IDF acted on intelligence provided by Israeli secret agency Mossad...
. The hijackers split the passengers by religion, with Jews on the one side and non-Jews on the other, with the intention to kill all of the former.
Also, Berman tracks major figures like
Bernard Kouchner Bernard Kouchner is a French politician, diplomat, and doctor. He is co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières -- also known as Doctors Without Borders -- and Doctors of the World...
— the later founder of Doctors Without Borders — a member of the 1968 Generation who would later marry active improvement of human rights to established political goals.
At the close of the book, Berman considers the effect of the war in Iraq on these graduates of '68. He suggests that the war split the movement greatly, with many now deeply aware of the dramatic excesses of the regime of
Saddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the President of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
, as well as the potential negative consequences if such a dictator remained in power. Nonetheless, they were deeply concerned by the arguments offered by the Bush Administration.
Controversy
In 1986, when
Michael MooreMichael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author and liberal political commentator. He is the director and producer of Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, and Capitalism: A Love Story four of the top six highest-grossing documentaries of all time...
became the editor of
Mother JonesMother Jones is an independent, nonprofit magazine rooted in liberal and progressive political values. It is widely known for its investigative reporting...
, after four months Moore was fired for refusing to print an article by Berman that was critical of the
SandinistaThe Sandinista National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas in both English and Spanish...
human rights record in Nicaragua. Moore stated that he would not run the article because he believed it to be wildly inaccurate. "The article was flatly wrong and the worst kind of patronizing bullshit. You would scarcely know from it that the United States had been at war with Nicaragua for the last five years". Berman described Moore as a "very ideological guy and not a very well-educated guy" when asked about the incident. Moore sued for wrongful dismissal, and settled out of court for $58,000, providing him with seed money for his first film,
Roger & MeRoger & Me is a 1989 American documentary film directed by independent filmmaker/author Michael Moore. With sarcasm and irony, Moore illustrates the negative economic impact of the late General Motors CEO Roger Smith's summary action of closing several auto plants in Flint, Michigan, costing 30,000...
.
See also
- Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of individual freedom. This belief is widely accepted today throughout the world, and was recognized as an important value by many philosophers throughout history...
- Liberal hawks
- Humanitarian intervention
Humanitarian intervention refers to armed interference in one state by another state with the objective of ending or reducing the suffering of the population within the first state....
- Dissent (magazine)
Dissent is an intellectual quarterly edited by Michael Walzer and Michael Kazin. Founded in 1954 by a group of New York Intellectuals, which included Irving Howe, Lewis A...
External links
- 'Paul Berman Response' in Dissent (magazine)
Dissent is an intellectual quarterly edited by Michael Walzer and Michael Kazin. Founded in 1954 by a group of New York Intellectuals, which included Irving Howe, Lewis A...
- World Policy Institute biography
- Paul Berman's Faculty Page at New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian, research university in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
(NYU).
- 'A Friendly Drink in a Time of War' in Dissent (magazine)
Dissent is an intellectual quarterly edited by Michael Walzer and Michael Kazin. Founded in 1954 by a group of New York Intellectuals, which included Irving Howe, Lewis A...
- 'Paul Berman on Susan Sontag' in Dissent (magazine)
Dissent is an intellectual quarterly edited by Michael Walzer and Michael Kazin. Founded in 1954 by a group of New York Intellectuals, which included Irving Howe, Lewis A...
- Slate.com: The Cult of Che-Don't Applaud the Motorcycle Diaries
- The New Republic: Silence and Cruelty
- Salon.com: Bush is an idiot, but he was right about Saddam
- New York Times Magazine: The Philosopher of Islamic Terror - Adapted from Terror and Liberalism'
- Video of interview/conversation with Paul Berman on Bloggingheads.tv
Bloggingheads.tv is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast online to viewers...