Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order

Robert Kagan asserts that on international issues, are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus (p. 3). Picking up on classical gender associations recirculated by John Gray's advice books, this catchphrase projects onto transatlantic relations sexy notions about supposed differences between men and women. analogy mobilizes conventional assumptions about supposed biological determinants of sexual difference in support of what Kagan sees as another essential truth: The United and Europe are fundamentally different today (p. 6). Although Kagan's analysis is in places sophisticated, it relies on narrow, even simplistic, concepts of power, strength, and weakness. While Kagan finds power the all important question…