Essay about American Exceptionalism and Cross-Cultural Communications

Howard Zinn defines American exceptionalism as the belief “...that the United States alone has the right, whether it be divine sanction or moral obligation, to bring civilization, or democracy, or liberty to the rest of the world, by violence if necessary.” The American exceptionalist ideology has domestic implications found in political rhetoric and within the founding of the United States. External implications of exceptionalism are evident in American foreign policy and militaristic interventions such as Vietnam and Iraq. A new definition of has arisen, highlighting the negative implications of exceptionalism, “Roast beef and apple pie explained exceptionalism but now we are back to moldy rye bread and water.”

American Exceptionalism is a term used to define the ideal that America is far superior to all other countries. It has been used to justify unfair actions and used to cover up flaws. Children are taught from a young age that America is the model country, and the people living there can do no wrong. In school, each bad thing that America has done in history is skimmed over, yet the accomplishments and victories are taught in great detail. For years, Americans have hid behind the phrase American exceptionalism as a way to not only avoid taking responsibility for their actions but to not push themselves to be better, as they already consider themselves perfect. The concept of this exceptionalism impedes the progress and evolution of mankind as they give up caring and trying to better themselves.

American Exceptionalism explained by David Barton is the longevity of the American U.S. Constitution compared to other nations form of government. America has had an exceptional record of accomplishment of stability because it has not gone through a Revolution over the pass 20-30 years. Alexis DeTocqueville created the term American Exceptionalism. DeTocqueville observation of America lead him to believe that America is an exceptional democratic type of people.

In the article “The Myth of American Exceptionalism” written by Stephen M. Walt, he writes about how, in its most basic form, America is not as exceptional as its citizens perceive it to be. He breaks down the article into smaller, albeit, rather unpalatable chunks ranging from, how what we may see as “exceptionalism” is not quite unlike what many other countries feel about themselves in their own patriotic views, to the belief that America is somehow a nation ordained and led by God. Being mindful that this is just a minute blurb of the entire meat of this article, I would like to begin by saying, for the most part, I agree.

Diplomacy is the art of dealing with foreign countries and their people in a sensitive and effective way. The ability to influence people and situations contributes to effective American diplomacy. In The Ugly American William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick comment on the nature of American diplomacy in 1950s Southeast Asia. They identify the characteristics and effects of both inept and skilled diplomacy. The book highlights knowledge of language, history, and culture as critical components to the ability to influence indigenous populations. In many ways the situations and characters described in the book mirror situations and challenges faced by Special Operations Forces (SOF) today. Special Operations Imperatives are a planning tool that SOF use to influence people and situations they encounter. In order to understand the influence and effects of proper application of the Special Operations Imperatives the stories of Homer Atkins, Colonel Hillandale and Solomon Asch provide a setting to compare and contrast with my own experiences in Afghanistan, Iraq and Jordan.

Marsella, A.J. (2011). The United States of America: “A Culture of War.” International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 35(6), 714-728. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2011.09.007

There are millions of different ethnicities and traditions all around the world. The United States, like United Kingdom, is one of the many diverse country with the most different nationalities living all among each other. This means these countries have high intercultural communication. Intercultural communication is when two or more cultures exchange messages in a way that is influence by their different cultural perceptions and symbols systems both verbal and nonverbal. Culture is the language, values, beliefs, traditions, and customs people share and learn. Sometimes cultures or co-cultures can be difficult to come together because the differences they share. Culture barriers make it difficult for young immigrants to transitioning into

America holds a high status in the modern world, and it is true that Americans are responsible for some of the world’s greatest innovations. However, our current leaders instill a certain viewpoint that creates misunderstandings about our culture on an international scale. The American lifestyle is fast-paced and hard-hitting: we are proud of our reputation for that. Many of our national ideals stem for a national pride and this behavior may seem off-putting to other nations across the world. This specific viewpoint gives off the impression of an attitude of superiority. Americans’ egocentrism concerning worldly affairs leads to others’ perception that we maintain an elitist society.

Stalin and Tocqueville’s definition of American exceptionalism was not meant as a compliment as Americans make it out to be. It is ironic to know that a communist branded American exceptionalism and the United States turned it into a form of endearment. President Barack Obama once said “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism" (Ceaser). His remark reflects how all nations have pride and believe that they have a quality that makes them unique.

In preparing a socio-cultural analysis of Monaco on counterinsurgency (COIN), it is important to understand the definition of culture as it pertains to the six socio-cultural factors such as: society, social structure, culture, language, power and authority, and interests. The United States Army uses the acronym (ASCOPE) which stands for: area, structures, capabilities, organizations, people and events to identify the culture of a particular area. The United States of America is the epitome of what it looks like to be a thriving country. However, often many countries do not share similar views on many topics with the U.S. Therefore, If we were to have disagreements with another country, many questions can be concerning, causing numerous

Interests. The national interests generally have endured over time and are usually updated and documented periodically in the National Security Strategy. The research team has tailored these to make them more

The three cultures that are involved in cross-cultural communication are the Missionary’s Culture Context, the Bible Culture Context, and the Respondent’s Culture Context. The Missionary’s culture is a missionaries understanding and interpretation of the Bible according to their upbringing in the gospel, and their traditions. For example, I grew up in the Methodist Church, and singing hymns is a part of our worship and culture. Some modernize Churches do not necessary care for hymns, because it seems to turn off the younger generation from attending Church. Therefore, the modern Church may only sing a hymn on a special occasion to honor their heritage, but they do include hymns as part of their weekly worship. Nevertheless, no matter the cultural differences God loves diversity (Winter, 2009, p. 354). As I reflect over my culture there is not too much difference in the Bible culture, we praise and worship, fast and pray many are still judgmental and prejudice, and slander and cheat. Ecclesiastes 1:9 states “History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.” Therefore, in my opinion the culture only changes when we change. Unfortunately, some people cast believers to the side when we do change, but now as I reflecting on this topic, it really just gives us an opportunity to create a more Christ-like culture, the way God intended it to be since the beginning of time.

The purpose of studying cultures and their differences is to guide and teach us how to successfully communicate with people from different countries and also how to learn and benefit from their cultures and ways of thinking. The publishers classified their work according to their studies, analysis, and

How is Stuart Hall’s “encoding/decoding” model an advance on the traditional “transmission” model of communication? How does it change conventional views of how media products are consumed?

To better understand this case, we are now going to analyze both cultures by using various models: