Jakub J. Grygiel

Jakub Grygiel, of the US State Department, has all the insight to make Return of the Barbarians a truly important book for our time. Unfortunately, the book misses its own objectives and its own point. It is a frustration rather than a revelation of what is going on today.

Barbarians originally meant foreigners who did not speak your language. It had nothing to do with manners, morals, or culture. But, as Grygiel points out, barbarians are invaders who never build, improve, govern, or even settle. They invade, destroy, kill, and rob. They take the loot away with them. They are not nation builders.

The purpose of the book is to determine whether we are facing a resurgence or episode of barbarians today, specifically in the form of Islamic terrorists. Grygiel does not provide the answer, and misses the elephant in the room.

By his definitions, Islamic terrorists are not barbarians because they are mostly citizens, raised in the country they attack. They are not usually armies of foreign opportunists loitering outside the territory, waiting for an opportunity to raid and escape.

Much of the book is a recitation of the issues facing the Roman Empire as it overstretched, deteriorated, and imploded. It could not send troops to defend against every incursion, and wrote off various territories as indefensible and non-strategic. Grygiel follows the trials and tribulations of several Roman bishops and saints preparing to see their territories overrun, and nothing they could do about it.

An interesting insight for our times is the creation of the walled city, which Grygiel says was a sign of weakness, not strength. Much like those cities, with better arms and communications, we now ring whole countries, prevent immigration and visits, record all mail deliveries, phone calls and chats. There are no-fly and extra scrutiny lists totaling over a million in the USA, from babies to dead people (Death is not sufficient cause for removal). We have progressed in terms of technology and numbers, but the mentality is the same – weakness, not strength.

Where Return of the Barbarians really falls down is with the history of Christianity. There is no discussion of the suicide cult, the burning of books, the razing of other houses of worship, the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria, the torture of nonbelievers, forced conversions, Crusades, Inquisitions, the spread of missionaries, and endless other ways in which earlier Christians set the precedents for Islamic Fundamentalists. They are not barbarians, because they actually have an agenda. They want to convert the entire human race to their religion, kill anyone who disagrees, and take pleasure in dying for the cause. Christianity set the bar for Islam.

Without that analysis, Return of the Barbarians is of little import.

David Wineberg… (lisätietoja)

Grygiel makes a stimulating, readable and concise case for the continuing relevance of geography in understanding foreign policy. He begins by surveying the academic history of geography, lays out his own model of the role of geography in international relations, illustrates it through three case studies (Venice, the Ottoman Empire and Ming Dynasty China) and concludes with some thoughts about the consequences of all of this for the United States. Students of international relations and foreign policy analysts will find their time with this text well repaid.… (lisätietoja)