The Homestretch of the American Century : BARBARIAN SENTIMENTS <i> by William Pfaff (Hill & Wang: $19.95; 304 pp.) </i>

As the 20th Century enters its last decade, there will be numerous publications that will attempt to review and evaluate the century from many different vantage points. Even for specialists examining a narrow theme the task will be formidable. No other century in the history of mankind has witnessed such dramatic and revolutionary changes in science and technology with such far-reaching consequences as has the 20th. Even in the area of political history, which is the broad subject of William Pfaff’s book, events seem to develop so rapidly that one has sometimes to revise one’s opinion from day to day. Witness the recent happenings in the Soviet Union and China. The “nationhood” of the former is being threatened by the demand for freedom from one of its constituent nations, while in China the students are agitating for a more democratic system of government. Who knows how things will turn out by the time this review is published.

Pfaff’s book is specifically about the rise of nationalism, perhaps the most distinctive feature of 20th-Century politics around the globe, its associated problems, and its impact on the United States and the Soviet Union, mostly the former. This may not be immediately apparent to the casual browser either in the bookstore or the library, for both the title as well as the subtitle--”How the American Century Ends”--are more intriguing than revealing. Only those who are familiar with China will easily recognize that the expression “barbarian sentiments” could only have been coined by a Chinese. Indeed, the original sentence, uttered by Wei Yuan, an official of the Imperial Manchu Court and one of the founders of Western learning in China, is quoted by the author as one of the two epigraphs of the book: “In order to handle barbarian affairs, you have to know barbarian sentiments: In order to know barbarian sentiments, you have to know barbarian conditions.” The author re-emphasizes what others have already said--that neither the Americans nor the Russians do their homework before interfering in other people’s affairs. But this is true of other nations as well. Are the Chinese, the Indians or the South Africans any the wiser in flexing their muscles in their respective spheres of influence?

As the century slips by, what does seem clear is that while Western Europe moves inexorably toward an economic confederation of some sort, and the United States remains the only large nation that is not threatened by disruptive internal forces, either racial or religious, the future of the other three giants--the Soviet Union, China and India--seems less secure from within. Even as this book is being reviewed, India is struggling to keep the Sikhs from breaking away, China is persecuting the Tibetans for seeking independence, and who would have dreamt even a decade ago that the Soviet Union would be shaken by the nationalistic aspirations of the Lithuanians and the Georgians? In a sense, all three nations are artificial creations of the 20th Century and are being held together by a central authority that is as much interested in perpetuating its own power as it is in preserving the union.

Although Pfaff, a well-known political journalist, does attempt to take a global perspective in arguing his case, the book is largely Eurocentric. Right or wrong, Pfaff believes that far from being exhausted by two catastrophic wars in the first half of the century, “Europe’s dynamism is in fact intensifying.” He is therefore concerned about America’s often complacent ideas about Europe. But here again one could accuse the Western Europeans too of misunderstanding America.

While one does not wish to write Europe off, especially in view of the fact that the world today is largely the creation of Europe, and while one agrees with Pfaff that much of our trouble around the globe in the last four decades has been as much due to the menace of nationalism as to the deplorable misconceptions and misguided policies of both superpowers (witness Vietnam, Iran and Afghanistan), one may seriously question whether Europe will be a key factor in shaping the politics of the next century.

Certainly this reviewer feels that the continuing growth of the populations in Asia, Africa and South America will lead to political explosions which by comparison will make the problems of nationalism appear as minor irritations. Nevertheless, Pfaff writes with conviction about nations with which he has had personal contact rather than as a theoretician ensconced in some isolated academic ivory tower. Despite the density of facts, it is an insightful book in which yet another reflecting American thinks out loud about what he feels should be his country’s attitude and responsibility in a rapidly changing world, economically, technologically and politically.

There are sensitive suggestions for policy makers in Washington to take note of, but will they once again fall on deaf ears? Pfaff patiently says, “We shall see,” while this reviewer wonders whether the American century will end with a bang or a whimper.