英美体制与世界

作者：英国《金融时报》首席经济评论员马丁•沃尔夫(Martin Wolf) 2008-09-08

现在，我们都是美国人。我这样说，不仅是指美国领导人塑造了我们生活的这个世界。我们生活的世界是由美国人，或者更确切地说，是由英美人(Anglo-Americans)所创造的。美国将继续保持巨大的影响力。它将如何利用这种影响力呢？这是我们应该针对美国总统大选提出的问题。选择似乎也很清楚：在那些期望世界充满冲突和那些认为应该寻求合作的人之间做出选择。

美国对外关系委员会(Council on Foreign Relations)的沃尔特•罗素•米德(Walter RussellMead)在其才华横溢的新书中，将当今美国纳入世界霸权的交接之中——起源于17世纪的荷兰，18和19世纪在英国得到发展，在20世纪的美国得以延续。* 他表示，它们的体制是“英美”体制。

这是怎样一种体制？它有三个核心特征：海洋性；全球性；以及商业与军事实力的结合。英美人有一种独特的文明：平民化，但好战；商业化，但注重道德；个人主义，但有组织性；有创新力，但又保守；富有理想主义，但冷酷无情。对敌人，它残忍、狭隘而伪善。对朋友，它是自由与民主的源泉。

过去三个世纪，英美人给世界带来了大国统治之道——由行政部门向选举议会负责。他们带来了以市场为导向的资本主义，以及发展中的工业和技术革命。更重要的是，他们打倒了许多强大的敌人：西班牙帝国、法兰西王国与法兰西帝国、德意志帝国与纳粹德国、军国主义的日本和最近的苏联共产主义。他们摧毁了印度的莫卧儿帝国和日本的幕府统治，也间接葬送了中国最后一个皇朝。

英美人还曾经与许多对立的意识形态相抗争。马克思主义不过是现代最为重要的另一种意识形态。它作为一种意识形态体系的衰落，为弗朗西斯•福山(Francis Fukuyama)提供了描写“历史的终结”的机会。他认为，自由民主证实了自己是惟一与现代性相容的体制。

对过去三个世纪的壮丽历史叙事，讲述的就是英美人的革命，以及这种革命在它所摧毁、打败、羞辱、特别是改造过的民族与文明中所引发的反应。因为这种世界霸权的交替并不仅仅局限于外部。英美还带来了内部改革。最伟大的文明——伊斯兰文明、印度文明、乃至中国文明——都被征服。英美人倾向于认为自己的干涉出于善意，造成的影响是有益的。说得客气点儿，在其它民族看来，事实并非如此。本书的优点之一在于，它正确评价了从路易十四(LouisXIV)到奥萨马•本•拉登(Osama bin Laden)和弗拉基米尔•普京(Vladimir Putin)对英美人的鄙视和仇恨。

那么，这种体制及其塑造的世界在21世纪的前景如何？而它与正在进行的美国总统选举止间可能存在什么关系？

第一点，也是最重要的一点，当今的世界已基本上接受了市场经济及其全球化的必然结果。这正在改变着世界两大巨人：中国和印度。结果，美国经济出现了相对下滑。

第二，尽管如此，在未来25年，美国将依然是全球最强大、科技最发达、最具创新性的经济体。同样可以确信的是，美国将拥有占世界主导地位的军事力量，从而在此期间保持世界霸主的地位。它仍将是世界上惟一的超级大国。

第三，巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)和约翰•麦凯恩(JohnMcCain)都是美国人。在美国内部，最惹人注目的似乎是他们的差异。但对于世界其它大多数国家和地区来说，最显著的是他们的相似之处。鉴于两人代表的都是英美传统，这成为了一个文化问题，而非血统问题。他们都相信美国的强权命运天定，本性仁慈。

God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World

 
Walter Russell Mead
 
Description
 
An illuminating account of the birth and rise of the global political and economic system that, sustained first by Britain and now by America, created the modern world.
 
Walter Russell Mead, one of our most distinguished foreign policy experts, makes clear that the key to the predominance of the two countries has been the individualistic ideology of the prevailing Anglo-American religion. Mead explains how this helped create a culture uniquely adapted to capitalism, a system under which both countries thrived. We see how, as a result, the two nations were able to create the liberal, democratic system whose economic and social influence continues to grow around the world.
 
With wit, verve, and stunning insight, Mead recounts what is, in effect, the story of a centuries-long war between the English-speaking peoples and their enemies. Sustained by control of the oceans that surround them, the British and their American heirs built a global system of politics, power, investment, and trade over the past three hundred years. Along the way, the two nations developed a sophisticated grand strategy that brought the English-speaking powers to a pinnacle of global power and prestige unmatched in the history of the world.
 
Since Oliver Cromwell's day, the English-speakers have seen their enemies as haters of liberty and God who care nothing for morality, who will do anything to win, and who rely on a treacherous fifth column to assure victory. Those enemies, from Catholic Spain and Louis XIV to the Nazis, communists, and Al-Qaeda, held similar beliefs about their British and American rivals, but we see that though the Anglo-Americans have lost small wars here and there, they have won the major conflicts. So far.
 
The stakes today are higher than ever; technological progress makes new and terrible weapons easier for rogue states and terror groups to develop and deploy. Where some see an end to history and others a clash of civilizations, Mead sees the current conflicts in the Middle East as the latest challenge to the liberal, capitalist, and democratic world system that the Anglo-Americans are trying to build. What we need now, he says, is a diplomacy of civlizations based on a deeper understanding of the recurring conflicts between the liberal world system and its foes. In practice, this means that Americans generally, and especially the increasingly influential evangelical community, must develop a better sense of America's place in the world.
 
Mead's emphasis on the English-speaking world as the chief hero (and sometimes villain) in modern history changes the way we see the world. Authoritative and lucid, God and Gold weaves history, literature, philosophy, and religion together into an eminently important work—a dazzling book that helps us understand the world we live in and our tumultuous times.