Tony Judt's faulty thesis

The original article by Tony Judt, PBUH, in the NYRB is three quarters regrets and one quarter prescription. Regret that the current (2003) situation was so unpromising and one quarter prescription- nationalism is an anachronism, so why not adapt to the new century and go with binationalism.

The assertion that nationalism is an anachronism seems faulty to say the least. Is Yugoslavia still there? No. Why not? Nationalism. Are people killing each other in Iraq? Why? At least in part- nationalism.

Judt spent the first part of his great work “Postwar” describing how Europe feared that the postwar peace would fall apart and how various factors contributed to keeping that peace. A peace that took 45 years and a nuclear standoff to maintain. And still what keeps the peace in the former Yugoslavia? NATO forces. So it is an imperfect peace. To pretend that the rest of the world has gone through the same learning process that Europe has endured is precisely that: to pretend and not to appreciate the various realities and indeed the various chronometers that apply in various corners of the world. That is what is faulty with his thesis. It is poor scholarship to apply the lessons learned in Europe to areas where the lesson has not yet been learned or is still being learned on the bodies of the dead in Iraq, for example. Is the fragile “peace” of Lebanon, where a military victory last spring by Hezbollah has forced the forces of dissent to go kiss Assad’s ring in Damascus, a sign that the lesson of Europe has been learned all over the world? Hardly.

Judt’s assessment of the unpromising nature of the reality in 2003 was all too accurate. The suppression of his views were a sign that certain opponents of his weak thesis were not willing to debate him in public and preferred the “behind closed doors” policy that had worked for them in the past. But one should not confuse his courage and his scholarship (regarding Europe) with the thesis regarding nationalism throughout the world as an anachronism. One can hope and pray that the rest of the world (including Europe’s former Yugoslavia and the Middle East from Iraq to Lebanon to Israel and Palestine) will catch up to the lessons learned by certain of Europe’s countries in the years ‘45 to ‘90. But to assume that such lessons were learned because one wishes they were learned is in fact a thesis without proof and with most evidence present (unfortunately) in the negative column.