U.S. Presidency Expert, SPP
Professor Speaks in Wales
| As a special guest to the University
of Wales at Swansea, UK, on October 8, SPP Professor
James Pfiffner spoke about the issues at the
center of the 2004 Presidential Election.
“The
focus of my remarks was on national security
and the election,” he
said. “I told the audience that national
security and particularly the war in Iraq was
a driving factor in the election. Usually economics
is the most important driving factor.” The
conference, organized by the American Studies
program at the University, was highlighted
with speeches by a number of British scholars
who
specialize in U.S. politics. Pfiffner, an expert
on the U.S. presidency, was joined by Fred
Greenstein of Princeton University who also
spoke about
the U.S. elections.
Pfiffner also argued that
the national unity that resulted after the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks shifted
to polarization after the United States attacked
Iraq. “The war itself really divided the
country and undermined our support throughout the
world,” he said.
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Professor James
Pfiffner is an expert on the U.S. presidency. |
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 Hear
Professor Pfiffner's interview with SPP Currents
Editor Stephanie Kriner (4:00 Minutes)
During the question and answer
session that followed his speech, most audience members
affirmed Pfiffner’s
assessments. “In most foreign countries, support
for the United States in Iraq is very low,” he
said.
Throughout the conference, Pfiffner listened to other
scholars who shared opinions and views that differed
sharply from U.S. policy, not only in Iraq but around
the globe. In general, he said that the European scholars
criticized the United States for being too sympathetic
with the Israelis. On another note, they also were
skeptical of the U.S. Electoral College system.
Meanwhile,
as Pfiffner listened to the European scholars speak
about the history of Western occupation in the
Middle East, he also began to reflect on how the Arab
world might perceive U.S. policy. “There’s
a long history of the West going to the Middle East
and trying to control things, and this has not been
successful. It is seen by some as part of a struggle
of civilizations,” he said. “Arab countries
and Muslims see this as an ongoing and ancient struggle.
They don’t see this as purely a 20th Century
conflict.”
Although already aware of many
of these differing world views, Pfiffner left the
conference with a new
spin
on these lessons to take home to his students. “Mainly
I want to tell them that not everybody sees the world
like the United States does and that there are different
perspectives, both in Europe and elsewhere,” he
said. “U.S. actions are not necessarily as popular
as people here often think they are.”
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