For two decades Bruce Robbins has been a theorist of and
participant in the movement for a "new cosmopolitanism," an
appreciation of the varieties of multiple belonging that emerge as
peoples and cultures interact. In "Perpetual War" he takes stock of
this movement, rethinking his own commitment and reflecting on the
responsibilities of American intellectuals today. In this era of
seemingly endless U.S. warfare, Robbins contends that the declining
economic and political hegemony of the United States will tempt it
into blaming other nations for its problems and lashing out against
them.
Under these conditions, cosmopolitanism in the traditional
sense--primary loyalty to the good of humanity as a whole, even if
it conflicts with loyalty to the interests of one's own
nation--becomes a necessary resource in the struggle against
military aggression. To what extent does the "new" cosmopolitanism
also include or support this "old" cosmopolitanism? In an attempt
to answer this question, Robbins engages with such thinkers as Noam
Chomsky, Edward Said, Anthony Appiah, Immanuel Wallerstein, Louis
Menand, W. G. Sebald, and Slavoj Zizek. The paradoxes of detachment
and belonging they embody, he argues, can help define the tasks of
American intellectuals in an era when the first duty of the
cosmopolitan is to resist the military aggression perpetrated by
his or her own country.
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