Since the end the cold war, there has emerged a disquieting phenomenon today among some Western powers of instrumentally refurbishing the Western self-image. The reasons are many, but a few countries have invested time and resources in this effort in order to reclaim moral authority, lost during decolonization, and to project their power as legitimate guardians of international morality. The construction of this self-image depends upon purposefully embellished traditions and false representations of the concerned states' intentions and actions throughout the modern era. France, for instance, boasts "honorable traditions' of humanism and democratic rule of law that afford liberty, equality, fraternity for all as well as solidarity and protection to the persecuted regardless of their origins.¹ The European Union and the United States frequently make similar representations of themselves as the incipient model of civilization and the principal producer and guarantor of the public good.