“God’s Own Country” — Power, Order, the New American Moment and "the Old Europe"
Frank-Christian Hansel —
“God’s own country” has long been shorthand for the American self-image: a nation with a special mandate, sustained by faith, power, and the conviction that it is entitled—perhaps even obliged—to shape history. For decades, this sense of mission was linked to the export of freedom and democracy. Today, something else has moved to the foreground: enforcement. Not as an exception, but as a governing principle.What has been taking shape in the United States for years is less an ideological shift to the Right than a redefinition of power itself. State authority, technology, capital, and cultural interpretation are converging. Politics is no longer primarily understood as a process, but as an operation. Speed replaces mediation; decision replaces negotiation.At the same time, the United States …