I agree with you completely. Call it "first world privilege" but the U.S. and European countries are not forced to treat most events in the shadow of an existential threat. Third world countries do, either because there is an existential threat, because they are too poor/weak to do otherwise, or because the memory of a time in which they were is too close to national consciousness.
This was often an issue in the study of International Relations to the extent that many theories of IR treat states as equal (as far as expected behavior, etc.), when they are clearly not.
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Date: 2009-09-19 04:58 pm (UTC)This was often an issue in the study of International Relations to the extent that many theories of IR treat states as equal (as far as expected behavior, etc.), when they are clearly not.