An absence of American intellect (4)
I believe the answer is:
nous
'intellect' is the definition.
(I know that Nous is a type of intellect)
'an absence of american' is the wordplay.
'an absence of' becomes 'no'.
'american' becomes 'us' (abbreviation for United States).
'no'+'us'='NOUS'
(Other definitions for nous that I've seen before include "Gumption" , "Knowledge, experience" , "we recognised in Nancy" , "Savvy" , "Informal common sense" .)