Thérese Delpech: Savage Century - Back to Barbarism
Hardcover: 210 pages
Publisher: Carnegie Endowment for Peace 2007
Thérese Delpech has written a convincing book on 21st century strategic landscape. Her brilliant historical narrative of the savage 20th century originates from the year 1905. Here one can find the starting point for the century of unconscious - as manifested in the works of Freud and Einstein. Delpech warns us that the crimes against humanity, that make up most of the horrible history of the past century, by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and totalitarian China have not been properly analyzed and judged. The political pathologies that were resolved in historic tragedy, are still very much alive in the collective lies about history. Finnish political history is no exception. Delpech warns us that if these problems are not acknowledged and solved, the advancement of human freedom that Europe and the world has enjoyed since 1989 will cease and that we will be pushed back to barbarism.
"Historians know, however, that major wars, using all the weapons available in the various arsenals, are a permanent possibility, as long as there are states and balances of power, and that world government is a utopia, attractive but absurd. The Third World War - an alternative to the Cold War - never happeneed. But who can assert that it never will happen?" p. 24-25
According to Delpech, Europe should not and can not afford to retire from history. Her message is a dire warning to the West:
"In strategy as in politics, European thought is primarily reactive. Europe has nothing to say... While European s sleep, others become aware of the power of ideas. But the ideas that are spreading most widely are very much contrary to European values... Europe is at once too much toward the past to be a major actore in the twenty-first century and too cut off from that past t ofind its inspiration there." p. 44-45
"In the struggle, Europe ought not to forget that the strength of America is its own, whereas its weakness is shared by the West as a whole." p. 166
Second Opinion: Jeremy Black / Journal of Military History
¶ 8/03/2008 05:11:00 ip.
