The US needs an external enemy to ensure community cohesion, Jean-Christophe Rufin said in an interview with the French Le Figaro newspaper.
“American society, similar to the Roman Empire is in need of an external uniting enemy. Since 1991, in its striving not to miss out on one, the US has made up two,” he said.
On the other – the US has pursued its systematic policy of besieging post-Soviet Russia. From Georgia to Mongolia and through the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) the US has laid the ground for a new cold war.
Now, the historian says, the US faces a choice of keeping only one enemy. The best candidate is Radical Islam, he says.
“However we should not forget the prophecy of Alexis de Tocqueville, who saw Russia as the only continental power capable of competing with the US,” Rufin stated.
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 – 1859) was a French political thinker and historian, who was famous for his analysis of the American democratic system; best known for his works 'Democracy in America' and 'The Old Regime and the Revolution.'