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America Alone

Not what Europe wants to hear

Mark Steyn
Regnery Publishing, 256pp, £15.99,

Michael Gove

Wednesday, 10th January 2007

Steyn succeeds in packing a series of provocative contentions into this relatively short book in a way which demonstrates a serious engagement with some of the biggest issues in geopolitics. That he does so with humour, lightness of touch and brutal clarity, only demonstrates what a talented writer he is, and takes nothing away from the seriousness of the challenges he poses. That many of Steyn's conclusions will be unpalatable to the European consensus only underlines how much a failure to face harsh truths has characterised the European response to the scale of the terrorist threat we face.

Steyn's arguments are, of course, framed by the War on Terror, but they are not limited to it. He considers how demographic change will affect power politics and discusses the impact of declining and ageing populations on Japan, Russia and Europe, set against the projections for America’s relatively steady growth in population and the expectations of explosive population growth in the Arab and Islamic world.

While it is certainly true that, from Malthus onwards, extrapolations of future population growth and their impact on politics have often gone awry Steyn’s related contention that the demographic balance within Europe is changing as a result of the growth in the numbers of Muslim citizens certainly poses urgent challenges. One of the biggest questions in contemporary European politics is how our societies manage relations between Muslim citizens and others, and that’s been reflected in the debate over the veil, the agonised questioning which followed the death of Theo van Gogh, and the controversy over the Danish cartoons.

Steyn’s specific contention is that the problem is not so much multiculturalism as biculturalism. The danger as he sees it is the inherent tension between an increasingly liberal and hedonistic, yet diffident and uncertain, de-Christianised civilisation and an increasingly religiously zealous and culturally assertive Islamist movement. As Steyn puts it, provocatively contrasting European fears about Iraq’s future with his concerns about Europe’s own stability:

You think Kurds and Arabs, Sunni and Shia are incompatible? What do you call a jurisdiction split between post-Christian secular gay potheads and anti-whoring, anti-sodomite, anti-everything-you-dig Islamists? If Kurdistan’s an awkward fit in Iraq, how well does Pornostan fit in the Islamic Republic of Holland?

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Kevin White

January 28th, 2008 7:05pm

I think that Mark Steyn's book was brilliant. But I do not accept his point that demography is everything. A war is won with blood and treasure - men and money. So a homogenous country could go into demographic decline and still, if rich, defend its borders: the money - buying better weapons - compensating for the lack of men. Having said that, he is right that demography is everything in a civil war. Combatants in a civil war can steal the weapons. So, I say the West will live on in countries that do not have a large Muslim population that will outbreed them. One thing I would like to know is where he sourced the point that England's nineteenth century population surge was down to it conquering infant mortality. I thought it was more about people being richer, and marrying younger, and thus being more fertile. Buy the book. It's great. Because Steyn writes with clarity, brevity, and style. He's a very funny guy. Kevin