America's love-hate relationship with the world

Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Published seven years after the much heralded Can Asians Think?, Kishore Mahbubani's second book pays homage to his favorite country -- the United States of America.

Beyond the Age of Innocence is a tribute to the great American way of life and its hegemony, with over 200 pages of lore about America's generosity, its role as a beacon of hope and prosperity, and a hope that its luster restored amid a decaying climate of mistrust towards the world's sole superpower.

The book can be tedious and captivating at the same time. Some parts seem like they will never end, while others are far too brisk in their treatment. Mahbubani's observations can be shrewd, yet the conclusions conceited, all at once. Beyond the Age of Innocence is well-written, but not necessarily easily read.

This is the world of America according to Mahbubani, his convictions of its great contributions to creating a better world and how it has since plummeted from global philanthropist to international villain in the eyes of many.

With a few broad strokes in his closing chapters, Mahbubani also looks at how things went wrong, along with a desperate plea as to how the damage can be repaired.

Students of international affairs and those in the diplomatic community will be well acquainted with this Singaporean.

Mahbubani is one of Southeast Asia's most distinguished diplomats. His most senior posting abroad was to serve for two terms as Singapore's permanent representative to the United Nations in New York. Prior to that, he had been assigned to represent his country in Cambodia, Malaysia and Canada. Last year, he became the first dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

A student of philosophy and a keen observer of history, Mahbubani has created a reputation as a prolific writer and intuitive thinker, and his writings have featured frequently in various journals and news publications.

Beyond the Age of Innocence is an internal reflection, a personal exercise to sort out his beliefs and feelings (toward America), which conflict with the paradox of reality.

Mahbubani concedes that part of what inspired him to write this book was his thoughts while holding vigil by his father's deathbed: "Had I written down all that I wanted to before leaving this earth?"

And so begins this odyssey, with a look at just how America has benefited the world. The first 26 pages of Chapter I feels like a glorification of everything American, and Mahbubani betrays his biased view of America. Readers, especially those with a more down-to-earth perception of the U.S. will find this opening chapter hard to digest.

Opening with, "America has done more good for the rest of the world than any other society. This statement is surely incontestable," it is understandable that some readers may be compelled to put down the book and move on to another immediately.

He goes on to laud the glorious values of American society and its contribution to humanity. Of how it "taught the people of the world that one's fate is not determined by birth".

But some of his claims of America's benevolence at times border on sightlessness toward historical reality.

Mahbubani writes that America changed the grain of history fundamentally when it emerged as a major power: "It refused to join the European impulse to colonize the world ... (an) inherent American desire to liberate rather than subjugate."

True, America did not engage in the kind of colonial land- grabbing that the Europeans undertook. But what about Cuba? What about the "genocide" of native Americans by the new settlers?

Furthermore, the land mass of the American continent was so vast and uncharted that, in the first 100 years of American independence, there was no need to look elsewhere for gold and glory.

Citing personal experiences, Mahbubani then goes on to paint an idyllic picture of America and Americans as the most generous people on earth, as if other nations and individuals from other states have not displayed great philanthropy.

Mahbubani attributes his rise from a young lad "in a six- bedroom house where six of us lived" to a "luxurious six-bedroom apartment in Manhattan" as a direct result of "all the beneficial forces America has unleashed".

Most of us will concede the many beneficial contributions America has made, but few of us would put our hearts on our sleeve the way Mahbubani does for America. Even those who are apolitical and unacquainted with Mahbubani's own track record may find the toast to America as "the best human society ever seen in history" rather unbearable.

The opening chapter is not good advertisement for the remaining six, which contains some provoking analysis of America's mistakes and its relationship with the world.

Those who do persevere -- or deftly skip the first two dozen pages (which is what this reviewer recommends) -- will come across the diplomatic insight and knowledgeable foresight that has made the Singaporean so respected beyond his native homeland.

Perhaps Mahbubani needed to be vulnerable in the opening of his book to qualifying the eventual critique-cum-lament of America's imprudence.

The meat of the book is where he starts his analysis of why, despite all the "good" it has done, America has now alienated so many people around the world.

Mahbubani argues that Americans themselves can be blamed for not realizing the changes brought about by global forces -- changes they themselves helped unleash; hence, despite changing the world, America itself is not changing with it. This superpower is thus ill-equipped to manage the seismic transformations occurring.

Being the center of the world often results in being too inward-looking, he says. The majority of Americans don't comprehend or are even unaware of what is happening, and even foreign policy was conducted in a "business as usual" framework. It is thus a rude awakening when these changes suddenly impact the normative life that the average American is so accustomed to.

Nowhere is this more striking than the U.S.' relations with China and the Muslim world.

One of the difficulties in dealing with these "alien" cultures is the obsoleteness of America's perception. Mahbubani argues that "Americans are only disadvantaging themselves if they believe that the ideological perspectives of the past ... are sufficient to help them understand the different world of the twenty-first century".

A new intellectual vista is thus needed, if America is to succeed in consolidating its relationship with the peoples of China and the Muslim world.

In his analysis of the relationship with Islamic communities around the world, Mahbubani is more damning as he outlines a number of strategic mistakes, along with areas for improvement in which Washington can engage. One such criticism is that, by failing to engage in successful policies of modernization to help Muslim countries, America has left deep divisions.

He also correctly points out a lesson that many moderate Islamic countries have only begun to realize in the past few years -- the need to promote the quiet majority of moderate Muslims to counter the din of radical rhetoric. Support for moderate Muslims and aid to facilitate more secular-oriented education could have done much to thwart the growth of religious radicalism, which ultimately manifested itself in anti- Americanism.

Mahbubani closes with a desperate, and somewhat naive, plea for America to embrace longer-term goals that would benefit the world, because, he argues, if the world suffers, so will America.

For Americans and those who love all things American, Beyond the Age of Innocence is a bittersweet assessment from one of their kin. The gentle manner in the way Mahbubani nudges his criticism should be an enlightening punctuation is easily acceptable to the world's sole superpower.

Certainly, this book is not for everyone. But those who have even a fleeting interest might want consider thumbing through the pages, particulerly those concerning China and Islam.

We may not necessarily learn something new from this book, but Mahbubani's thoughts -- based on decades of high-level diplomacy and direct contact with American decision-makers -- gives a perspective to help Asians and Americans understand each other better.