The
Bush Doctrine is a phrase used to describe various related
foreign policyA country's foreign policy, also called the international relations policy, is a set of goals outlining how the country will interact with other countries economically, politically, socially and militarily, and to a lesser extent, how the country will interact with non-state actors...
principles of former
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
president
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
. The phrase initially described the policy that the United States had the right to secure itself from countries that harbor or give aid to terrorist groups, which was used to justify the 2001
invasion of AfghanistanThe War in Afghanistan is an ongoing coalition conflict which began on October 7, 2001, as the British military participated in the US military's Operation Enduring Freedom that was launched in response to the September 11 attacks...
.
Later it came to include additional elements, including the controversial policy of
preventive warA preventive war or preventative war is a war initiated under the belief that future conflict is inevitable, though not imminent. Preventive war aims to forestall a shift in the balance of power by strategically attacking before the balance of power has a chance to shift in the direction of the...
, which held that the United States should depose foreign regimes that represented a potential or perceived threat to the security of the United States, even if that threat was not immediate; a policy of spreading democracy around the world, especially in the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, as a strategy for combating terrorism; and a willingness to pursue U.S. military interests in a unilateral way. Some of these policies were codified in a
National Security CouncilThe White House National Security Council in the United States is the principal forum used by the President for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the President of the...
text entitled the
National Security Strategy of the United States published on September 20, 2002.
National Security Strategy of the United States
The main elements of the Bush Doctrine were delineated in a document, the
National Security Strategy of the United StatesThe National Security Strategy of the United States of America is a document prepared periodically by the executive branch of the government of the United States for congress which outlines the major national security concerns of the United States and how the administration plans to deal with...
, published on September 17, 2002. This document is often cited as the definitive statement of the doctrine. It was updated in 2006 and is stated as follows:
Components
The Bush Doctrine has been formulated as a collection of strategy principles, practical policy decisions, and a set of rationales and ideas for guiding United States foreign policy. Two main pillars are identified for the doctrine: preemptive strikes against potential enemies and promoting democratic regime change.
The George W. Bush administration claimed that the United States is locked in a global war; a war of ideology, in which its enemies are bound together by a common
ideologyAn ideology is a set of aims and ideas that directs one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a...
and a common hatred of democracy.
Out of the
National Security Strategy, four main points are highlighted as the core to the Bush Doctrine: Preemption, Military Primacy, New Multilateralism, and the Spread of Democracy. The document emphasized preemption by stating: "America is now threatened less by conquering states than we are by failing ones. We are menaced less by fleets and armies than by catastrophic technologies in the hands of the embittered few." and required "defending the United States, the American people, and our interests at home and abroad by identifying and destroying the threat before it reaches our borders."
Secretary of Defense,
Donald RumsfeldDonald Henry Rumsfeld is a United States businessman, politician, the 13th Secretary of Defense under President Gerald Ford from 1975 to 1977, and the 21st Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006...
, in 2006 stated that: "If I were rating, I would say we probably deserve a D or D+ as a country as how well we're doing in the battle of ideas that's taking place. I'm not going to suggest that it's easy, but we have not found the formula as a country."
Unilateralism
Unilateral elements of the Bush Doctrine were evident in the first months of Bush's presidency. Conservative commentator
Charles KrauthammerCharles Krauthammer is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist and political commentator. His weekly column appears in the The Washington Post and is syndicated in more than 200 newspapers and media outlets. He is a contributing editor to the Weekly Standard and The New Republic...
used the term, unilateralism, in February 2001 to refer to the president's increased unilateralism in foreign policy, specifically regarding the president's decision to withdraw from the ABM treaty.
There is some evidence that Bush's willingness for the United States to act unilaterally came even earlier. The International Journal of Peace Studies 2003 article
The Bush administration's image of Europe: From ambivalence to rigidity states:
Attacking countries that harbor terrorists
The doctrine was developed more fully as an executive branch response in the wake of the
September 11, 2001 attacksThe September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by Al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners...
. The attacks presented a foreign-policy challenge, since it was not Afghanistan that had initiated the attacks, and there was no evidence that they had any foreknowledge of the attacks. In an address to the nation on the evening of September 11, Bush stated his resolution of the issue by declaring that "we will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."
President Bush made an even more aggressive restatement of this principle in his September 20, 2001 address to a
Joint Session of CongressJoint sessions of the United States Congress are the gatherings together of both houses of the United States Congress . Joint sessions are held on special occasions such as the State of the Union Address and presidential inaugurations.- Forms of joint session and joint meeting :While any meeting of...
:
Ari FleischerLawrence Ari Fleischer is the former press secretary for U.S. President George W. Bush from January, 2001 to July, 2003. Fleischer was born in Pound Ridge, New York; his parents were Jewish, his mother a Hungarian immigrant who lost much of her family in the Holocaust....
, the Press Secretary to President Bush at the time, later wrote in an autobiographical account of that address, "In a speech hailed by the press and by Democrats, [the President] announced what became known as the 'Bush Doctine'".
This policy was used to justify the
invasion of AfghanistanThe War in Afghanistan is an ongoing coalition conflict which began on October 7, 2001, as the British military participated in the US military's Operation Enduring Freedom that was launched in response to the September 11 attacks...
in October 2001, and has since been applied to American military action against Al Qaeda camps in North-West Pakistan.
Preemptive strikes
President Bush addressed the cadets at the
U.S. Military Academy (West Point)The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. Established in 1802, USMA is the oldest of the United States's five service academies. The military garrison at West Point was occupied in 1778 and played a key...
on June 1, 2002, and made clear the role Preemptive war would play in the future of American foreign policy and national defense:
Two distinct schools of thought arose in the
Bush AdministrationThe Presidency of George W. Bush began on his inauguration on January 20, 2001 as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...
regarding the question of how to handle countries such as
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
,
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
, and
North KoreaNorth Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer area between North Korea and South Korea...
("
Axis of Evil"Axis of evil" is a term coined by United States President George W. Bush in his State of the Union Address on January 29, 2002 in order to describe governments that he accused of helping terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction. President Bush named Iran, Iraq and North Korea...
" states).
Secretary of StateThe United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence. The current Secretary of...
Colin PowellColin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State , serving under President George W. Bush. He was the first African American appointed to that position...
and
National Security AdvisorThe Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor , serves as the chief adviser to the President of the United States on national security issues...
Condoleezza RiceCondoleezza Rice is a professor, diplomat, author, and national security expert. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and the second to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
, as well as U.S. Department of State specialists, argued for what was essentially the continuation of existing U.S. foreign policy. These policies, developed after the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
, sought to establish a multilateral consensus for action (which would likely take the form of increasingly harsh sanctions against the problem states, summarized as the policy of containment). The opposing view, argued by Vice President
Dick CheneyRichard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 in the administration of George W. Bush....
, Secretary of Defense
Donald RumsfeldDonald Henry Rumsfeld is a United States businessman, politician, the 13th Secretary of Defense under President Gerald Ford from 1975 to 1977, and the 21st Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006...
and a number of influential
Department of DefenseThe United States Department of Defense is the federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to national security and the military...
policy makers such as
Paul WolfowitzPaul Dundes Wolfowitz is a former United States Ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, President of the World Bank, and former Dean of The Paul H...
and
Richard PerleRichard Norman Perle is an American political advisor and lobbyist who worked for the Reagan administration as an assistant Secretary of Defense and worked on the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee from 1987 to 2004...
, held that direct and unilateral action was both possible and justified and that America should embrace the opportunities for democracy and security offered by its position as sole remaining superpower. President Bush ultimately sided with the Department of Defense camp, and their recommendations.
Democratic regime change
In a series of speeches in late 2001 and 2002, President Bush expanded on his view of American foreign policy and global intervention, declaring that the United States should actively support
democraticDemocracy is a system of government in which either the actual governing is carried out by the people governed , or the power to do so is granted by them...
governments around the world, especially in the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, as a strategy for combating the threat of terrorism, and that the United States had the right to act unilaterally in its own security interests, without the approval of international bodies such as the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
. This represented a departure from the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
policies of
deterrenceDeterrence can refer to:* Deterrence theory, a theory of war, especially regarding nuclear weapons* Deterrence , a theory of justice* Deterrence , a psychological theory* Deterrence...
and
containmentContainment was a United States policy using military, economic, and diplomatic strategies to temper the spread of Communism, enhance America’s security and influence abroad, and prevent a "domino effect". A component of the Cold War, the policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet...
under the
Truman DoctrineThe Truman Doctrine is a set of principles of U.S. inland policy created on March 12, 1947 by President Harry S Truman. In his speech to Congress, Truman declared that the United States, as "leader of the free world", must support democracy worldwide and fight against communism...
and post-Cold War philosophies such as the
Powell DoctrineThe "Powell Doctrine" is a journalist-created term, named after General Colin Powell in the run-up to the 1990-1991 Gulf War. It is based in large part on the Weinberger Doctrine, devised by Caspar Weinberger, former Secretary of Defense and Powell's former boss.The Powell Doctrine states that a...
and the
Clinton DoctrineThe Clinton Doctrine is not a clear statement in the way that many other United States Presidential doctrines were. However, in a February 26 1999, speech, President Bill Clinton said the following, which was generally considered to summarize the Clinton Doctrine:Clinton later made statements that...
.
In his 2003
State of the Union AddressThe State of the Union is an annual address presented before by the President of the United States to the United States Congress. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation but also allows the president to outline his legislative agenda and national priorities to Congress...
, President Bush declared:
After his second inauguration, in a January 2004 speech at
National Defense UniversityThe National Defense University is an institution of higher education funded by the United States Department of Defense, intended to facilitate high-level training, education, and the development of national security strategy. It is chartered by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with Navy Vice Adm. Ann...
, Bush said: "The defense of freedom requires the advance of freedom."
Neoconservatives and the Bush Doctrine held that the hatred for the West and United States in particular, is not because of actions perpetrated by the United States, but rather because the countries from which terrorists emerge are in social disarray and do not experience the freedom that is an intrinsic part of democracy. The Bush Doctrine holds that enemies of United States are using terrorism as a war of ideology against the United States. The responsibility of the United States is to protect itself and its friends by promoting democracy where the terrorists are located so as to undermine the basis for terrorist activities.
Neoconservatives
Central to the development of the Bush Doctrine was its strong influence by
neoconservativeNeoconservatism is a political philosophy that emerged in the United States of America, and which supports using American economic and military power to bring liberalism, democracy, and human rights to other countries...
ideologyAn ideology is a set of aims and ideas that directs one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a...
, and it was considered to be a step from the political realism of the
Reagan DoctrineThe Reagan Doctrine was a strategy orchestrated and implemented by the United States under the Reagan Administration to oppose the global influence of the Soviet Union during the final years of the Cold War...
. The Reagan Doctrine was considered key to American foreign policy until the end of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
, just before
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
became president of the United States. The Reagan Doctrine was considered anti-Communist and in opposition to
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
global influence, but later spoke of a
peace dividendThe peace dividend is a political slogan popularized by US President George H.W. Bush and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the early 1990s, purporting to describe the economic benefit of a decrease in defense spending. It is used primarily in discussions relating to the guns versus butter...
towards the end of the Cold War with economic benefits of a
decrease in defense spending. The Reagan Doctrine was strongly criticized by the neoconservatives, who also became disgruntled with the outcome of the
Gulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , known also as the Gulf War, the First Gulf War,or often as the Second Gulf War and by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as The Mother of all Battles, or commonly as Desert Storm, for the military response...
and United States foreign policy under Bill Clinton, sparking them to call for change towards global stability through their support for active intervention and the
democratic peace theoryDemocratic peace theory holds that democracies, for some appropriate definition of democracy, rarely go to war with one another....
. Several central persons in the counsel to the
George W. Bush administrationThe Presidency of George W. Bush began on his inauguration on January 20, 2001 as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...
considered themselves to be neoconservatives or strongly support their foreign policy ideas.
Neoconservatives are widely known to long have supported the overthrow of
Saddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the President of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
in Iraq, and on January 26, 1998, the PNAC sent a public letter to then-President Bill Clinton stating:
Among the signatories to
Project for the New American Century'sThe Project for the New American Century was an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. that lasted from early 1997 to 2006. It was co-founded as a non-profit educational organization by conservatives William Kristol and Robert Kagan...
original statement of Principals is George W. Bush’s father’s Vice President
Dan QuayleJames Danforth "Dan" Quayle was the 44th Vice President of the United States, serving under George H. W. Bush . He served as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the state of Indiana.-Early life:...
, his (Bush Jr.'s) defense secretary
Donald RumsfeldDonald Henry Rumsfeld is a United States businessman, politician, the 13th Secretary of Defense under President Gerald Ford from 1975 to 1977, and the 21st Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006...
, his deputy defense secretary
Paul WolfowitzPaul Dundes Wolfowitz is a former United States Ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, President of the World Bank, and former Dean of The Paul H...
, his Vice President
Dick CheneyRichard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 in the administration of George W. Bush....
, and his brother
Jeb BushJohn Ellis "Jeb" Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd Governor of Florida. He is a prominent member of the Bush family: the younger brother of former President George W. Bush; the older brother of Neil Bush, Marvin Bush and Dorothy Bush Koch; and the second son of former President...
.
PNAC member and the chairman of the
Defense Policy Board Advisory CommitteeThe Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, also referred to as the Defense Policy Board is a federal advisory committee to the United States Department of Defense. Their charter is available on line through the Director of the Office of Administration and Management of the Department of Defense...
(DPBAC), Neoconservative
Richard PerleRichard Norman Perle is an American political advisor and lobbyist who worked for the Reagan administration as an assistant Secretary of Defense and worked on the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee from 1987 to 2004...
, later expressed regret over the Iraq invasion and ultimately put the blame for the invasion on President George W. Bush; while other renowned neoconservative ideologists like Joshua Muravchik and Norman Podhoretz claim that neoconservatives must take intellectual leadership and that traditional conservatives lack the insight on how to solve terrorism. Muravchik called former Secretary of Defense
Donald RumsfeldDonald Henry Rumsfeld is a United States businessman, politician, the 13th Secretary of Defense under President Gerald Ford from 1975 to 1977, and the 21st Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006...
(a traditional conservative) a neoconservative hero and champion of military strategy, but that the strength of neoconservatives is their ideology as foundation for policies, and this strength is also recognized by political scientists. Muravchik claims these strengths are present in the case of the Reagan presidency as well as the Bush presidency, and that Bush unlike Reagan has contributed to the "fundamental solution" to the Middle East.
Other than Bush and Rumsfeld, other traditional conservatives who are thought to have adopted neoconservative foreign policy thinking include Vice President
Dick CheneyRichard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 in the administration of George W. Bush....
and Secretary of State
Condoleezza RiceCondoleezza Rice is a professor, diplomat, author, and national security expert. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and the second to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
.
The Bush Doctrine, in line with long-standing neoconservative ideas, held that the United States is entangled in a global war of ideas between the western values of freedom on the one hand, and extremism seeking to destroy them on the other; a war of ideology where the United States must take responsibility for security and show leadership in the world by actively seeking out the enemies and also change those countries who are supporting enemies.
The Bush Doctrine, and neoconservative reasoning, held that containment of the enemy as under the Realpolitik of Reagan does not work, and that the enemy of United States must be destroyed before he attacks — using all the United States' available means, resources and influences to do so.
On the book
Winning the War on Terror Dr. James Forest,
U.S. Military Academy Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, comments: "While the West faces uncertainties in the struggle against militant Islam’s armies of darkness, and while it is true that we do not yet know precisely how it will end, what has become abundantly clear is that the world will succeed in defeating militant Islam because of the West’s flexible, democratic institutions and its all-encompassing ideology of freedom."
Natan Sharansky
Another part of the intellectual underpinning of the Bush Doctrine was the 2004 book
The Case for DemocracyThe Case for Democracy is a foreign policy manifesto written by one-time Soviet political prisoner and former Israeli Member of the Knesset, Natan Sharansky. Sharansky's friend Ron Dermer is the book's co-author...
, written by Israeli politician and author,
Natan SharanskyNatan Sharansky is a former Soviet spy, human rights activist, Israeli politician and author....
, and Israeli Minister of Economic Affairs in the United States,
Ron DermerRon Dermer was Israel's Minister of Economic Affairs in the United States. Born and raised in Miami Beach, Florida, he earned a degree in Finance and Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University...
, which Bush has cited as influential in his thinking. The book argues that replacing dictatorships with democratic governments is both morally justified, since it leads to greater freedom for the citizens of such countries, and strategically wise, since democratic countries are more peaceful, and breed less terrorism, than dictatorial ones.
Expanding United States influence
Princeton UniversityPrinceton University a private university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League and is considered one of the Colonial Colleges....
research fellow Dr. Jonathan Monten, in his 2005
International SecurityInternational Security is a leading peer-reviewed academic journal in the field of international and national security. The journal is edited by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University and published four times a year by MIT Press, both of Cambridge,...
journal article
"The Roots of the Bush Doctrine: Power, Nationalism, and Democracy Promotion in U.S. Strategy", attributed the Bush administration’s activist democracy promotion to two main factors: the expansion of material capabilities, and the presence of a nationalist domestic ideology. He claims the Bush Doctrine promotion of democracy abroad is held vital by the George W. Bush administration to the success of the United States in the war against terrorism. It is also a key objective of the administration’s grand strategy of expanding the political and economic influence of the United States internationally. He examines two contending approaches to the long-term promotion of democracy:
“exemplarism,” or leadership by example, and
“vindicationism,” or the direct application of United States power, including the use of coercive force. Whereas exemplarism largely prevailed in the twentieth century, vindicationism has been the preferred approach of the Bush administration.
Criticism and analysis
The Bush Doctrine has resulted in criticism and controversy. Peter D. Feaver, who worked on the Bush national security strategy as a staff member on the National Security Council, said he has counted as many as seven distinct Bush doctrines. One of the drafters of the National Security Strategy of the United States, which is commonly mistakenly referred to as the "Bush Doctrine," demurred at investing the statement with too much weight. "I actually never thought there was a Bush doctrine," said Philip D. Zelikow, who later served as State Department counselor under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "Indeed, I believe the assertion that there is such a doctrine lends greater coherence to the administration's policies than they deserve." Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's national security adviser, said he thought there was no "single piece of paper" that represents the Bush doctrine.
Experts on geopolitical strategy note that Halford Mackinder's theories in
The Geographical Pivot of HistoryThe Geographical Pivot of History was an article submitted by Halford John Mackinder in 1904 to the Royal Geographical Society that advanced his Heartland Theory...
about the
Heartland and world resource control are still as valid today as when they were formulated.
In his 2007 book,
In the Defense of the Bush Doctrine, Robert G. Kaufman wrote: "No one grasped the logics or implications of this transformation better than Halford Mackinder. His prescient theories, first set forth in
Geographical Pivot of History, published in 1904, have rightly shaped American grand strategy since World War II. Mackinder warned that any single power dominating Eurasia, "the World Island", as he called it, would have the potential to dominate the world, including the United States." Kaufman is a political scientist, public policy professor and member of The Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee. He said in an interview about the book:
"I wrote this book because of my conviction that the Bush Doctrine has a more compelling logic and historical pedigree than people realize."
The Bush Doctrine has been polarizing both in domestic policies and internationally.
Anti-AmericanismAnti-Americanism, often anti-American sentiment, is opposition or hostility to the people or the government policies of the United States. In practice, a broad range of attitudes and actions critical of or opposed to the United States have been labeled anti-Americanism...
has been rising, and as of 2008, polls show there is more anti-Americanism than before the George W. Bush administration started forming the Bush Doctrine; this increase is probably, at least partially, a result of implementing the Bush doctrine and conservative foreign policy.
Foreign interventionism
The foreign policy of the Bush Doctrine was subject to controversy both in the United States and internationally.
Critics of the Bush Doctrine were suspicious of the increasing willingness of the United States to use military force unilaterally. Some published criticisms include Storer H. Rowley’s June 2002 article in the
Chicago TribuneThe Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company...
, Anup Shah’s at Globalissues.org, and Nat Parry’s April 2004 article at ConsortiumNews.com.
Robert W. TuckerRobert Whitney Tucker Jr., an American neoconservative, is a writer and teacher who is Professor Emeritus of American Foreign Policy at the Johns Hopkins University, Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on...
and David C. Hendrickson argued that it reflects a turn away from international law, and marks the end of American legitimacy in foreign affairs.
Others have stated that it could lead to other states resorting to the production of WMD or terrorist activities. This doctrine is argued to be contrary to the Just War Theory and would constitute a
war of aggressionA war of aggression is a military conflict waged absent the justification of self-defense. Waging such a war of aggression is a crime under the customary international law...
. Patrick J. Buchanan writes that the
2003 invasion of IraqThe 2003 invasion of Iraq, was led by the United States, backed by British forces and smaller contingents from Australia, Denmark, Poland and Spain. Four countries participated with troops during the initial invasion phase, which lasted from March 20 to May 1...
has significant similarities to the 1996 neoconservative policy paper
A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm.
Political scientist
Karen KwiatkowskiKaren U. Kwiatkowski is a retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel whose assignments included duties as a Pentagon desk officer and a variety of roles for the National Security Agency. Since retiring, she has become a noted critic of the U.S. government's involvement in Iraq...
, in 2007 wrote on her article
Making Sense of the Bush Doctrine:
“We are killing terrorists in self-defense and for the good of the world, you see. We are taking over foreign countries, setting them up with our favorite puppets "in charge," controlling their economy, their movements, their dress codes, their defensive projects, and their dreams, solely because we love them, and apparently can’t live without them.”
Radical departure
According to Buchanan and others, the Bush Doctrine was a radical departure from former United States foreign policies, and a continuation of the radical ideological roots of neoconservatism.
Initially, support for the United States was high, but by the end of the Bush administration, after seven years of war, anti-Americanism was high and criticism of the Bush Doctrine was widespread; nonetheless the doctrine still had support among some United States political leaders.
The representation of prominent neoconservatives and their influences on the Bush Doctrine had been highly controversial among the United States public.
Critics, like
John MicklethwaitJohn Micklethwait is the editor-in-chief of The Economist.Micklethwait was educated at Ampleforth and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied history...
in the book
The Right NationThe Right Nation is a book published in 2004 which charts the rise of the Republican Party in the United States since Barry Goldwater's defeat in 1964...
, claim that George W. Bush was deceived by neoconservatives into adopting their policies.
Polarization
Anti-war critics have claimed that the Bush Doctrine was strongly polarizing domestically, and has estranged the allies of the United States, despite Bush's often-stated desire to be a "uniter, not a divider".
Compassionate belief and religious influence
President Bush often talked about his belief in
compassionate conservatismCompassionate conservatism is a political philosophy that stresses using traditionally conservative techniques and concepts in order to improve the general welfare of society.-Origins of the term:...
and liberty as "God's gift". In his Claremont Institute article
Democracy and the Bush Doctrine,
Charles R. KeslerCharles R. Kesler is professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College. He studied a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University,At Claremont, he is a senior fellow of the conservative Claremont Institute, and directs their Publius Fellows Program, a summer institute...
wrote, "As he begins his second term, the president and his advisors must take a hard, second look at the Bush Doctrine. In many respects, it is the export version of compassionate conservatism."
Sociopsychological strategy and effects
There is also criticism on the Bush Doctrine practices related to their sociopsychological effects saying they create a
culture of fearCulture of fear is a term that refers to a perceived prevalence of fear and anxiety in public discourse and relationships, and how this may affect the way people interact with one another as individuals and as democratic agents...
.
Author
Naomi KleinNaomi Klein is a Canadian journalist, author and activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization.-Family:...
wrote in her book
The Shock DoctrineThe Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism is a 2007 book by Canadian journalist Naomi Klein.The book argues that the free market policies of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics have risen to prominence in countries such as Chile under Pinochet, Russia under...
about a recurrent metaphor of shock, and claimed in an interview that the Bush administration has continued to exploit a
"window of opportunity that opens up in a state of shock", subsequently followed with a comforting rationale for the public, as a form of
social controlSocial control includes social mechanisms that regulate individual and group behavior, leading to conformity and compliances to the rules of a given society or social group. Many mechanisms of social control are cross-cultural, if only in the control mechanisms used to prevent the establishment of...
. Her 2008 book
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism further elaborates on her impressions on the Bush Doctrine and throughout the George W. Bush administration.
Spreading democracy
Some commentators argue that U.S. intervention has not aimed to support genuine democratic regimes driven by local peoples, but rather US-friendly regimes installed by diplomats acting on behalf of the United States, and intended only to seem democratic to U.S. voters. For example, in the case of Afghanistan, it is argued that parliamentary democracy was downplayed by the US and power concentrated in the hands of the Afghan president Hamid Karzai, a U.S. ally. The election of Karzai has been described as the result of manipulation on the parts of the U.S. government and U.S. policy maker Zalmay Khalilzad. At the same time, these commentators draw attention to the number of unpopular (but U.S.-friendly) warlords achieving
"legitimating" positions under U.S. supervision of the elections. Some commentators interpreted voter turnout figures as evidence of
"large-scale fraud". Sonali Kolhatkar and James Ingalls have written, "It remains to be seen if U.S. policy makers will ever allow anything approaching democracy to break out in Afghanistan and interfere with their plans."
Of the elections in Afghanistan,
Sima SamarDr. Sima Samar, OC is the Chairperson of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and, since 2005, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan.-Biography:...
, former Afghan Minister for Women's Affairs stated:
Most studies of
American intervention have been pessimistic about the history of the United States exporting democracy. Tures examined 228 cases of American intervention from 1973 to 2005, using
Freedom HouseFreedom House is a Washington-based international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...
data. A plurality of interventions, 96, caused no change in the country's democracy. In 69 instances the country became less democratic after the intervention. In the remaining 63 cases, a country became more democratic.
See also
- Carter Doctrine
The Carter Doctrine was a policy proclaimed by President of the United States Jimmy Carter in his State of the Union Address on January 23 1980, which stated that the United States would use military force if necessary to defend its national interests in the Persian Gulf region...
- Clinton Doctrine
The Clinton Doctrine is not a clear statement in the way that many other United States Presidential doctrines were. However, in a February 26 1999, speech, President Bill Clinton said the following, which was generally considered to summarize the Clinton Doctrine:Clinton later made statements that...
- Jus ad bellum
Jus ad bellum are a set of criteria that are consulted before engaging in war, in order to determine whether entering into war is justifiable....
- Powell Doctrine
The "Powell Doctrine" is a journalist-created term, named after General Colin Powell in the run-up to the 1990-1991 Gulf War. It is based in large part on the Weinberger Doctrine, devised by Caspar Weinberger, former Secretary of Defense and Powell's former boss.The Powell Doctrine states that a...
- Reagan Doctrine
The Reagan Doctrine was a strategy orchestrated and implemented by the United States under the Reagan Administration to oppose the global influence of the Soviet Union during the final years of the Cold War...
- The One Percent Doctrine
The One Percent Doctrine is a nonfiction book by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ron Suskind about America's hunt for terrorists since September 11th.On July 24th, 2006, it reached number 3 on the New York Times Best Seller list....
- United States Presidential doctrines
United States Presidential doctrines are key goals, attitudes, or stances for United States foreign affairs outlined by Presidents that were dubbed their "doctrines". Most presidential doctrines are related to the Cold War. Though many U.S...
- War on Terrorism
The War on Terrorism is the common term for the military, political, legal and ideological conflict against what the effort's leaders describe as Islamic terrorism and Islamic militants, and was specifically used in reference to operations by the...
- Wolfowitz Doctrine
thumb|Paul Wolfowitz.Wolfowitz Doctrine is an unofficial name given to the initial version of the Defense Planning Guidance for the 1994–99 fiscal years authored by U.S...
External links
Books
- Weisberg, Jacob
Jacob Weisberg is an American political journalist, serving as editor-in-chief of Slate Group, a division of The Washington Post Company, and a columnist for the Financial Times. He served as the editor of Slate magazine for six years, until stepping down in June 2008...
The Bush Tragedy, Random HouseRandom House, Inc. is the world's largest English-language general trade book publisher. It has been owned since 1998 by the large German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing...
, 2008. ISBN 978-1400066780
- Bacevich, Andrew J.
Andrew J. Bacevich, Sr. is a professor of international relations at Boston University, former director of its Center for International Relations , and author of several books, including American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of US Diplomacy , The New American Militarism: How Americans...
The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced By War, New York & London, Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-19-517338-4
- Bennett, William J.
William John Bennett is an American conservative pundit, politician, and political theorist. He served as United States Secretary of Education from 1985 to 1988. He also held the post of Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under George H. W...
Why We Fight: Moral Clarity and the War on Terrorism, New York, Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2003. ISBN 0-385-50680-5
- Chernus, Ira Monsters To Destroy: The Neoconservative War on Terror and Sin, Boulder, CO, Paradigm Publishers, 2006 ISBN 1-59451-276-0
- Dolan, Chris J. In War We Trust: The Bush Doctrine And The Pursuit Of Just War, Burlington, VA, Ashgate, 2005. ISBN 0-7546-4234-8
- Dolan, Chris J. and Betty Glad (eds.) Striking First: The Preventive War Doctrine and the Reshaping of U.S. Foreign Policy, New York & London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. ISBN 1-4039-6548-X
- Donnelly, Thomas
Thomas Donnelly is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research . Donnelly is a writer, an analyst of military affairs and defense, national security and foreign policy and the author of AEI's National Security Outlook. He has been a Director at the Lockheed...
The Military We Need: The Defense Requirements of the Bush Doctrine, Washington, D.C., American Enterprise Institute Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8447-4229-5
- Gaddis, John Lewis
John Lewis Gaddis is the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale University. He was born in Cotulla Texas in 1941. He is a noted historian of the Cold War and grand strategy. He has been hailed as the 'Dean of Cold War Historians' by the The New York Times. He is also the...
Surprise, Security, and the American Experience, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-674-01174-0
- Grandin, Greg Empire's Workshop: Latin America, The United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism, New York, Metropolitan Press, 2006. ISBN 0-8050-7738-3 http://www.americanempireproject.com/bookpage.asp?ISBN=0805077383
- Hayes, Stephen S. The Brain: Paul Wolfowitz and the Making of the Bush Doctrine, New York, HarperCollins, Forthcoming (2007?). ISBN 0-06-072346-7
- Kaplan, Lawrence and William Kristol
William Kristol is an American neoconservative political analyst and commentator. He is the founder and editor of the political magazine The Weekly Standard, a regular commentator on the Fox News Channel, and a former op-ed columnist for the New York Times.Kristol is associated with a number of...
The War over Iraq: Saddam's Tyranny and America's Mission, San Francisco, Encounter Books, 2003. ISBN 1-893554-69-4
- Kolodziej, Edward A. and Roger E. Kanet (eds.) From Superpower to Besieged Global Power: Restoring World Order after the Failure of the Bush Doctrine, Athens, GA, University of Georgia Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8203-3074-7
- McAdam, Richard. American Leadership and the Future of the Bush Doctrine: US Foreign Policy in the 21st Century. Saarbrucken: VDM, 2008. ISBN 978-3639061352
- Shanahan, Timothy (ed.) Philosophy 9/11: Thinking about the War on Terrorism, Chicago & LaSalle, IL, Open Court, 2005 ISBN 0-8126-9582-8
- Smith, Grant F. Deadly Dogma, Washington, DC, Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, 2006. ISBN 0-9764437-4-0
- Tremblay, Rodrigue
Rodrigue Tremblay is a Canadian-born economist, humanist and political figure. He teaches economics at the Université de Montréal. He specializes in macroeconomics, international trade and finance, and public finance. He is a prolific author of books in economics and politics.Born in Matane,...
The New American Empire, West Conshohocken, PA, Infinity, 2004, ISBN 0-7414-1887-8
- Woodward, Bob
Robert Upshur "Bob" Woodward is regarded as one of America's preeminent investigative reporters and non-fiction authors. He has worked for The Washington Post since 1971 as a reporter, and is currently an associate editor of the Post...
Plan of Attack, New York, Simon & Schuster, 2004. ISBN 0-7432-5547-X
- Wright, Steven. The United States and Persian Gulf Security: The Foundations of the War on Terror, Ithaca Press, 2007 ISBN 978-0863723216