Home › Books & Reviews › Capsule Reviews › Architects of Delusion: Europe, America, and the Iraq War

Architects of Delusion: Europe, America, and the Iraq War

Simon Serfaty
Reviewed by By Philip H. Gordon
May/June 2008
Print Email
Login or Register to leave a comment.

Sign-up for free weekly updates from ForeignAffairs.com.
Simon Serfaty
University of Pennsylvania Press
2008
160 pp.
2147483647
$45.00

Serfaty, an expert on Europe and U.S. foreign policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Old Dominion University, brings a historical perspective to this study of transatlantic relations in regard to the Iraq war. Drawing on an intimate knowledge of postwar European history, he sees continuities with the past in the way key players on both sides approached the issue: France, for example, concluding that it could maximize its influence by standing up to the United States and the United Kingdom trying to do so by standing alongside it. But there were also discontinuities. Serfaty is as unsparing in his criticism of Germany's unilateralism -- a sharp break with German tradition -- as he is in his criticism of the Bush administration. Less a narrative about the Iraq diplomacy than an essay about the strategic cultures on both sides of the Atlantic, Architects of Delusion is marked by the author's palpable regret that neither European nor U.S. leaders put the premium on transatlantic (and intra-European) solidarity, which he believes is both necessary and possible. Serfaty rejects the popular thesis that Europe and the United States are inevitably growing apart, but the sad tale he tells in this book will leave readers wondering whether the transatlantic alliance that existed before the Iraq war can really be restored.

Related

Response, Jan/Feb 2005
Nothing to Fear
Ronald D. Asmus, Antony J. Blinken, and Philip H. Gordon

In "Saving NATO From Europe," (November/December 2004), Jeffrey L. Cimbalo warns that a dagger is pointed at the heart of the Atlantic alliance, and the murder weapon is the European Union's draft constitution. Ratification of that document, Cimbalo asserts, would have "profound and troubling implications for the transatlantic alliance and for future U.S. influence in Europe." Washington, he believes, should "end its uncritical support for European integration" and work with its friends in Europe to halt the EU process and save NATO from an untimely death.

Read
Essay, Jan/Feb 2003
Bridging the Atlantic Divide
Philip H. Gordon

In recent months, many observers have concluded that the United States and Europe are on divergent paths and that the transatlantic alliance is crumbling. In spite of some real differences, however, American and European attitudes remain remarkably similar on most key issues. Basing policy on the false assumption of transatlantic divorce would only make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Read
Essay, May/Jun 1995
Heading Off War in the Southern Balkans
Misha Glenny

The Clinton administration erred grievously in threatening intervention in the northern Balkans (Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia) and then quailing when it was needed. But in the southern Balkans (Macedonia, Albania, Greece, Turkey), U.S. diplomacy has been successful, particularly compared with the clownish efforts of European nations. Capable U.S. envoys have worked hard to reverse the growing polarization of Greece and Turkey. Moreover, U.S. support has helped reinforce the fragile geographic firewall, Macedonia, thus preventing a wider regional war.

Read