A world of ignorance

America’s politicians are hopeless at understanding other countries – but they’re not alone in that

Ever since the United States rose to great power status, it has displayed bouts of appalling ignorance about the politics and cultures of the rest of the world. Pick a region, any region, and one can find quotations and policies that demonstrate a breathtaking ability to think that other countries were just like the United States. During the Cold War, US policymakers continually misread the Pacific Rim. In the 1940s, Senator Kenneth Wherry of Nebraska vowed that ‘with God’s help, we will lift Shanghai up until it is just like Kansas City’. It turned out that the communists were more successful in that endeavour than Chiang Kai-Shek.

Lack of local knowledge has hampered America in the Middle East over the past decade. US policymakers were convinced prior to the second Gulf war that Ahmed Chalabi would be welcomed by Iraqis as their Thomas Jefferson.