Military Review English Edition November December 2016 | Page 24

both cultures and languages would coexist in the rest of
America. America, in short, would lose its cultural and
linguistic unity and become a bilingual, bicultural society
like Canada, Switzerland, or Belgium.
Third, the various forces challenging the core
American culture and Creed could generate a move
by native white Americans to revive the discarded and
discredited racial and ethnic concepts of American
identity and to create an America that would exclude,
expel, or suppress people of other racial, ethnic, and
cultural groups. Historical and contemporary experience suggest that this is a highly probable reaction
from a once dominant ethnic-racial group that feels
threatened by the rise of other groups. It could produce a racially intolerant country with high levels of
intergroup conflict.
Fourth, Americans of all races and ethnicities could
attempt to reinvigorate their core culture. This would

mean a recommitment to America as a deeply religious
and primarily Christian country, encompassing several
religious minorities, adhering to Anglo-Protestant
values, speaking English, maintaining its European cultural heritage, and committed to the principles of the
Creed. Religion has been and still is a central, perhaps
the central, element of American identity. America was
founded in large part for religious reasons, and religious
movements have shaped its evolution for almost four
centuries. By every indicator, Americans are far more
religious than the people of other industrialized countries. Overwhelming majorities of white Americans,
of black Americans, and of Hispanic Americans are
Christian. In a world in which culture and particularly
religion shape the allegiances, the alliances, and the
antagonisms of people on every continent, Americans
could again find their national identity and their national purposes in their culture and religion.

Notes

1. Luntz Research Co. survey of 1,000 adults, 3 October 2001,
reported in USA Today, 19–21 October 2001, p. 1.
2. New York Times, 23 September 2001, p. B6.
3. Rachel Newman, “The Day the World Changed, I Did Too,”
Newsweek, 1 October 2001, p. 9.
4. Los Angeles Times, 16 February 1998, pp. B1, C1; John J. Miller, “Becoming an American,” New York Times, 26 May 1998. p. A27.
5. Joseph Tilden Rhea, Race Pride and the American Identity
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997), pp. 1–2, 8–9; Robert
Frost, Selected Poems of Robert Frost (New York: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, 1963), pp. 297–301, 422; Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse
of Morning,” New York Times, 21 January 1993, p. A14.
6. Ward Connerly, “Back to Equality, Imprimis, 27 (February
1998), p. 3.
7. Correspondence supplied by Ralph Nader; Jeff Jacoby,
“Patriotism and the CEOs” Boston Globe, 30 July 1998, p. A15.
8. Robert D. Kaplan, “Fort Leavenworth and the Eclipse of Nationhood,” Atlantic Monthly, 278 (September 1996), p. 81; Bruce
D. Porter, “Can American Democracy Survive?” Commentary, 96
(November 1993), p. 37.
9. Mehran Kamrava, The Political History of Modern Iran: From
Tribalism to Theocracy (London: Praeger, 1992), p. 1; James Barber,
“South Africa: The Search for Identity,” International Affairs, 70
( January 1994); Lowell Dittmer and Samuel S. Kim, China’s Quest
for National Identity (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993); Timothy Ka-Ying Wong and Milan Tung-Wen Sun, “Dissolution and Reconstruction of National Identity: The Experience of Subjectivity in
Taiwan,” Nations and Nationalism, 4 (April 1998); Gilbert Rozman,
“A Regional Approach to Northeast Asia,” Orbis, 39 (Winter 1995);

22

Robert D. Kaplan, “Syria: Identity Crisis,” Atlantic Monthly, 271
(February 1993); New York Times, 10 September 2000, p. 2, 25
April 2000, p. A3; Conrad Black, “Canada’s Continuing Identity
Crisis,” Foreign Affairs, 74 (March/April 1995), pp. 95–115; “Algeria’s Destructive Identity Crisis,” Washington Post National Weekly
Edition, 31 January–6 February 1994, p. 19; Boston Globe, 10 April
1991, p. 9; Anthony DePalma, “Reform in Mexico: Now You See
It,” New York Times, 12 September 1993, p. 4E; Bernard Lewis, The
Multiple Identities of the Middle East (New York: Schocken, 1998).
10. Gilles Kepel, The Revenge of God: The Resurgence of Islam,
Christianity, and Judaism in the Modern World (University Park:
Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994). See also Mark Juergensmeyer, The New Cold War? Religious Nationalism Confronts the
Secular State (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993); Peter
L. Berger, ed., The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion
and World Politics (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1999);
David Westerlund, ed., Questioning the Secular State: The Worldwide Resurgence of Religion in Politics (London: Hurst, 1996).
11. Ivor Jennings, The Approach to Self-Government (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1956), p. 56, quoted in Dankwart A. Rustow, “Transitions to Democracy: Toward a Dynamic
Model,” Comparative Politics, 2 (April 1970), p. 351.
12. Charles Tilly, “Reflections on the History of European
State-Making,” in Tilly, ed., The Formation of National States in Western Europe (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975), p. 42.
13. Peter Wallensteen and Margareta Sollenberg, “Armed
Conflict, 1989–99,” Journal of Peace Research, 39 (September
2000), p. 638.
14. Bill Clinton, quoted in The Tennessean, 15 June 1997, p. 10.

November-December 2016  MILITARY REVIEW