Anti-Americanism Theory: From a Journalistic Attitude to a Scientific Perspective

Until the end of the cold war era, the literature on anti-Americanism, mainly in the framework of journalistic debates, focused on periodic reactions and behaviors of some governments, intellectual and popular groups protesting against the foreign policy of the US government. Following the developments in the 1990s, particularly the terrorist events of September 11, 2001, many efforts were made to theorize anti-Americanism by the US foreign policy specialists. These were accelerated by 2003 when Iraq was invaded by the US military forces. In fact, the period of Bush administration and his neo-conservative team with their policy of unilateralism and increasing reliance on security-military tools, became a prelude for empowering the anti-Americanism waves, a trend whose ontological debates were drawn to academic and research circles. Reviewing the theoretical origin of this issue (anti-Americanism) which refers to the analytical framework of "hegemonism", this paper seeks to give an analysis of the process of theoretical evolution of anti-Americanism during the cold war and post cold war eras. In this regard, the paper will particularly focus on the opinions of the European theorists and politicians about encountering the behavior and role playing pattern of the United States, especially during the period of Bush administration, within the “European Anti-Americanism” framework.