Anti-Americanism, World Politics, and German-U.S. Relations

This study examines German-U.S. relations during the George W. Bush administration. It utilizes Peter J. Katzenstein and Robert O. Keohane's theoretical framework of anti-Americanism to examine German perceptions of U.S. foreign policy. Katzenstein and Keohane distinguish four distinctive types of anti-Americanism. Liberal anti-Americanism is a reaction to unpopular U.S. foreign policies. Social anti-Americanism occurs in response to U.S. style capitalism and U.S. society. Sovereign-nationalist anti-American is a nationalistic response to the superpower's perceived intrusion on state sovereignty. Radical anti-Americanism is a Leninist or radical Islamic response to U.S. power. I hypothesize that anti-Americanism in German is primarily a political reaction to the policies of the Bush administration. However the negative attitudes towards U.S. foreign policy also manifest themselves in the form of the social and sovereign types of anti-Americanism.