"In my view, America has never had the opportunity to enter paradise. Europe enjoys the paradise it enjoys, in part because the United States provides the overall security that allows Europe to live in a system where military power is not a major issue"
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Kagan’s line is a neat little act of strategic provocation: he frames geopolitics as an unequal relationship disguised as a shared “West.” “Paradise” is doing double duty here. It’s not just a metaphor for prosperity; it’s an indictment of European moral self-regard. Europe gets to imagine itself post-history, post-power, post-war, because someone else is paying the insurance premium. The United States, in this telling, doesn’t “enter paradise” because it’s stuck outside the gates as the bouncer.
The intent is less descriptive than corrective. Kagan is pushing back on the late-1990s/early-2000s European confidence that soft power, multilateral institutions, and economic integration had replaced the crude logic of force. His subtext: that vision isn’t wrong so much as subsidized. Take away American military primacy - NATO’s backstop, U.S. bases, nuclear deterrence, intelligence - and Europe’s higher-minded model starts to look less like a triumph of civilization and more like a luxury good.
The context matters: post-Cold War optimism, the Balkan wars, 9/11, Iraq, and the widening transatlantic rift over what threats are and how to meet them. Calling Europe “paradise” is both bait and mirror: bait, because it needles Europeans who dislike being cast as dependent; mirror, because it reflects American self-conception as the indispensable, overburdened guardian. The rhetorical move forces an uncomfortable question: is Europe’s peace a political achievement, or a security arrangement outsourced to a superpower that can’t afford the innocence it protects?
The intent is less descriptive than corrective. Kagan is pushing back on the late-1990s/early-2000s European confidence that soft power, multilateral institutions, and economic integration had replaced the crude logic of force. His subtext: that vision isn’t wrong so much as subsidized. Take away American military primacy - NATO’s backstop, U.S. bases, nuclear deterrence, intelligence - and Europe’s higher-minded model starts to look less like a triumph of civilization and more like a luxury good.
The context matters: post-Cold War optimism, the Balkan wars, 9/11, Iraq, and the widening transatlantic rift over what threats are and how to meet them. Calling Europe “paradise” is both bait and mirror: bait, because it needles Europeans who dislike being cast as dependent; mirror, because it reflects American self-conception as the indispensable, overburdened guardian. The rhetorical move forces an uncomfortable question: is Europe’s peace a political achievement, or a security arrangement outsourced to a superpower that can’t afford the innocence it protects?
Quote Details
| Topic | Peace |
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