Paul Berman
Encyclopedia
Paul Berman is an American writer. His articles have been published in numerous periodicals, such as: The New Republic
, The New York Times Book Review
and Slate
. He is also the author of several books, most notably A Tale of Two Utopias, Terror and Liberalism
, and its sequel, The Flight of the Intellectuals.
Berman received his education from Columbia University
, where he graduated in 1971 with a BA and MA in American history. He has reported on Nicaragua's
civil wars, Mexico's elections, and the Czech Republic's Velvet Revolution
. Currently he is a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute
, and a member of the editorial board of the intellectual magazine Dissent
. Berman's influence has seen him pejoratively described as a "Philosopher King" of the liberal hawks. He was awarded a 1991 MacArthur Fellowship
.
's apparent failure in the aftermath of the First World War. Movements like Fascism
, Nazism
, Falangism
, and Communism
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 nihilist
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-Arabism
and Islamic fundamentalism
. 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.
In July 2010, Berman wrote in the Wall Street Journal that "Islamism is a modern, instead of an ancient, political tendency, which arose in a spirit of fraternal harmony with the fascists of Europe in the 1930s and '40s."
Several intellectuals have cited Berman's influence on their thinking. British writer, Nick Cohen
, in his switch to support for the wider war on terror
, cited Terror and Liberalism as a major influence:
This approach has not been without its critics. Anatol Lieven
of the New America Foundation
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."
and the 2003 invasion of Iraq
were justified by the doctrine of "liberal interventionism
": 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 Dissent
, "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 destruction
, 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
Speaking of Israel in an interview, Berman commented on "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."
, 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-Semitic
impulses in this movement when he saw the Revolutionary Cells participate in the Entebbe hijacking
. The hijackers split the passengers by ethnicity, 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
— 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 Hussein
, 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.
became the editor of Mother Jones
; however, after four months Moore was fired for refusing to print an article by Berman that was critical of the human rights record of the Sandinista
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". When asked about the incident, Berman described Moore as a "very ideological guy and not a very well-educated guy." Moore sued for wrongful dismissal and the case was settled out of court for $58,000, providing Moore with seed money for his first film, Roger & Me
.
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review
The 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 offices are located near Times Square in New York...
and Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based 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 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
. He is also the author of several books, most notably A Tale of Two Utopias, Terror and Liberalism
Terror and Liberalism
Terror and Liberalism is a non-fiction book by American political philosopher and writer Paul Berman. He published the work through W. W. Norton & Company in April 2003.-Contents:...
, and its sequel, The Flight of the Intellectuals.
Berman received his education from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, where he graduated in 1971 with a BA and MA in American history. He has reported on Nicaragua's
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
civil wars, Mexico's elections, and the Czech Republic's Velvet Revolution
Velvet Revolution
The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that took place from November 17 – December 29, 1989...
. Currently he is a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute
World Policy Institute
The World Policy Institute, a non-partisan policy institute which claims to develop policies that require a progressive ideology. WPI focuses on cooperative policies in order to achieve : an inclusive and sustainable global market economy, engaged global civic participation and effective...
, and a member of the editorial board of the intellectual magazine Dissent
Dissent (magazine)
Dissent is a quarterly magazine focusing on politics and culture edited by Michael Walzer and Michael Kazin. The magazine is published for the Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas, Inc by the University of Pennsylvania Press....
. Berman's influence has seen him pejoratively described as a "Philosopher King" of the liberal hawks. He was awarded a 1991 MacArthur Fellowship
MacArthur Fellows Program
The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...
.
Totalitarianism and Islamic Fundamentalism
In Terror and Liberalism, Berman suggests that the appeal of totalitarian movements emanated from liberalismLiberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
's apparent failure in the aftermath of the First World War. Movements like Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
, Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, Falangism
Falangism
Falangism is the political ideology of the Spanish Falange as well as derivatives of it in other countries. In its original form, Falangism is widely associated as a fascist ideology, the Spanish Falange denied this, claiming it was not a copy of any foreign movement...
, and Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
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 nihilist
Nihilist movement
The Nihilist movement was a Russian movement in the 1860s which rejected all authorities. It is derived from the Latin word "nihil", which means "nothing"...
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-Arabism
Pan-Arabism
Pan-Arabism is an ideology espousing the unification--or, sometimes, close cooperation and solidarity against perceived enemies of the Arabs--of the 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...
and Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism 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. According to Christine L...
. 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.
In July 2010, Berman wrote in the Wall Street Journal that "Islamism is a modern, instead of an ancient, political tendency, which arose in a spirit of fraternal harmony with the fascists of Europe in the 1930s and '40s."
Several intellectuals have cited Berman's influence on their thinking. British writer, Nick Cohen
Nick Cohen
Nick Cohen is a British journalist, author and political commentator. He is currently a columnist for The Observer, a blogger for The Spectator and TV critic for Standpoint magazine. He formerly wrote for the London Evening Standard and the New Statesman...
, in his switch to support for the wider war on terror
War on Terrorism
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
, cited Terror and Liberalism as a major influence:
This approach has not been without its critics. Anatol Lieven
Anatol Lieven
Peter Paul Anatol Lieven is a British author, journalist, and policy analyst. He is presently a Senior Researcher at the New America Foundation, where he focuses on US global strategy and the War on Terrorism, Associated Scholar of the Transnational Crisis Project, Chair of International...
of the New America Foundation
New America Foundation
The New America Foundation is a non-profit public policy institute and think tank with offices in Washington, D.C. and Sacramento, CA. It was founded in 1999 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."
Middle East
Berman argues that the 2001 invasion of AfghanistanWar in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
and the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
were justified by the doctrine of "liberal interventionism
Humanitarian intervention
Humanitarian intervention "refers to a state using military force against another state when the chief publicly declared aim of that military action is ending human-rights violations being perpetrated by the state against which it is directed."...
": 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 Dissent
Dissent
Dissent 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 destruction
Weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number 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
Speaking of Israel in an interview, Berman commented on "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 FischerJoschka Fischer
Joseph Martin "Joschka" Fischer is a German politician of the Alliance '90/The Greens. He served as Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of Germany in the cabinet of Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005...
, 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-Semitic
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
impulses in this movement when he saw the Revolutionary Cells participate in the Entebbe hijacking
Operation Entebbe
Operation Entebbe was a counter-terrorist hostage-rescue mission carried out by the Special Forces of the Israel Defense Forces at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on 4 July 1976. A week earlier, on 27 June, an Air France plane with 248 passengers was hijacked by Palestinian and German terrorists and...
. The hijackers split the passengers by ethnicity, 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
Bernard Kouchner is a French politician, diplomat, and doctor. He is co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières and Médecins du Monde...
— 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 Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity 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, Michael MooreMichael Moore
Michael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...
became the editor of Mother Jones
Mother Jones (magazine)
Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
; however, after four months Moore was fired for refusing to print an article by Berman that was critical of the human rights record of the Sandinista
Sandinista National Liberation Front
The Sandinista National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas in both English and Spanish...
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". When asked about the incident, Berman described Moore as a "very ideological guy and not a very well-educated guy." Moore sued for wrongful dismissal and the case was settled out of court for $58,000, providing Moore with seed money for his first film, Roger & Me
Roger & Me
Roger & Me is a 1989 American documentary film directed by Michael Moore. Moore portrays the regional negative economic impact of General Motors CEO Roger Smith's summary action of closing several auto plants in Flint, Michigan, costing 30,000 people their jobs at the time and economically...
.
See also
- LiberalismLiberalismLiberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
- Liberal hawks
- Humanitarian interventionHumanitarian interventionHumanitarian intervention "refers to a state using military force against another state when the chief publicly declared aim of that military action is ending human-rights violations being perpetrated by the state against which it is directed."...
- Dissent (magazine)Dissent (magazine)Dissent is a quarterly magazine focusing on politics and culture edited by Michael Walzer and Michael Kazin. The magazine is published for the Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas, Inc by the University of Pennsylvania Press....
- Anti-Germans (political current)
External links
- 'Nazi Sheikhs, Berman interview' in Guernica MagazineGuernica MagazineGuernica / A Magazine of Art and Politics is a biweekly online site that publishes art and photography, fiction, and poetry, from around the world, along with nonfiction such as letters from abroad, investigative pieces and opinion pieces on international affairs and U.S. domestic policy...
- 'Paul Berman Response' in Dissent (magazine)Dissent (magazine)Dissent is a quarterly magazine focusing on politics and culture edited by Michael Walzer and Michael Kazin. The magazine is published for the Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas, Inc by the University of Pennsylvania Press....
- World Policy Institute biography
- Paul Berman's Faculty Page at New York UniversityNew York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based 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 (magazine)Dissent is a quarterly magazine focusing on politics and culture edited by Michael Walzer and Michael Kazin. The magazine is published for the Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas, Inc by the University of Pennsylvania Press....
- 'Paul Berman on Susan Sontag' in Dissent (magazine)Dissent (magazine)Dissent is a quarterly magazine focusing on politics and culture edited by Michael Walzer and Michael Kazin. The magazine is published for the Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas, Inc by the University of Pennsylvania Press....
- 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 with Paul Berman on Bloggingheads.tvBloggingheads.tvBloggingheads.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...
- Irfan Khawaja, Review of Paul Berman's Flight of the Intellectuals in Reason Papers: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Normative Studies, Vol. 33 (Fall 2011), pp. 165-89.