ABBARIAO, Regina Fatima COMFPOL OLLL02 GRIMALDO, Rainiel

The Historical Context of US Foreign Policy

A. Major Historical Patterns:

1. Internationalist or Interventionist orientation of US Foreign Policy: ○ 1900: the

US had quadrupled its landmass at the expense of other claimants, engaged in
multiple wars of conquest, vigorously pursued access to markets in all parts of
the globe and acquired an overseas empire by force.

○ They became interventionist with the use of their armed forces since 1798. There
were records of their use of armed forces before the Spanish-American War
and even before World War II.

○ The scope of the armed intervention was supposed to be concentrated in the

Western Hemisphere and Asia, their intervention went beyond those regions.

2. European and English roots of US Foreign Policy:

○ 13 colonies created by European expansion

- Original 13 colonies: New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts,

Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North

Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

- The union of 13 colonies or the early United States decided to expand its

influence in the continent and this became the first characteristic of US

geographic enlargement; the continental enlargement from the East to the

West.

○ Europeans, specifically England and France were expanding during that time
and took over North America wherein the eastern half of it became a
“patchwork of power bases.”

○ Wide-scale war between Europe and their American colonists

- Seven Years War (known in the United States as the French-Indian War) ○ In the
 late 18th century, the American revolution happened which involved the battle
between Englishmen over the Eastern seaboard and the continent of North
America.

○ With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the US was recognized by England,
France, Spain.
THE CONTINENTAL ERA

○ George Washington favored a foreign policy of nonalignment whereby the

United States should avoid permanent alliances and entanglements.

○ The North American colonies were dependent on the English economy so they
tried to focus more on nation building:
- build an independent country safe from its neighbors,
- establish a strong national economy and
- establish a stable democratic government.

○ They also focused on expansion of territory as they deemed this as the best way
to protect the nation and drive away hostile neighbors such as the British,
French, Spanish and Russians away from the Eastern seaboard and the
Western Hemisphere.

○ With strengthening national security and the national economy, it contributes

to their political stability.

○ The USFP is responsible for acquiring and annexing territories throughout the
North American continent.

- They purchased Maine and Oregon from England, Florida from Spain,
Texas and California from Mexico and Alaska from Russia.

○ Despite coexistence and signed treaties, the Native Americans continued to

suffer the most from their expansionist era.

- 8-10 million American natives were pushed toward the reservation

wherein they are not exterminated in the land but they have to go
 through cultural transformation to “live peaceably” in the United States.

○ Continental expansion also involved thousands of private and entrepreneurial

Americans who pushed westward in search of land, gold, profit and freedom:
by 1860, the US had grown from 13 colonies on the eastern seaboard to a
country that spanned to a whole continent.

○ American commerce and merchants were active in all areas of the globe:
Europe, Caribbean, the Orient and the slave trade of Africa.

○ China was the magnet which accounted for the “path of empire” of Europeans
toward the Pacific—the Yankees (Americans) joined in the 1780s.

○ US foreign policy founders pressed open markets and attacked mercantilistic

barriers abroad to boost the economy and secure independence.
- This caused a major war between the US and England in 1812.

○ The US government, through its Navy, was politically and militarily active
beyond the continent—the US 1st consulate was established in Canton in 1789.

○ The Monroe Doctrine was proclaimed in Latin America in 1823 stating the
Western Hemisphere was (Hispanic America or Central and South America)
not open to colonization by Europeans.

- The US negotiated the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty for the right to build an

interoceanic canal and attempted to annex Cuba and Santo Domingo
(Dominican Republic) to the US.

○ In the Orient, extraterritorial rights were negotiated with China; forced Japan to
open its ports to foreigners in 1854; Hawaii and Midway Islands were occupied
as transit points for American commerce with the Orient.

THE REGIONAL ERA

○ Latter half of the 19th Century: The United States had been quite successful in
building an independent and transcontinental country that was growing more
powerful. By the end of the Civil War, the United States no longer faced any
 immediate threats from its neighbors.

○ The Civil War also settled the divisions between the North and South, allowing
political stability at the national level. The national economy was vibrant and
growing, and the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869: it soon
joined the international scramble for material wealth and power.

○ WHY WAS THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD IMPORTANT?: Just ast it opened

the markets of the West Coast and Asia to the east, it brought products of
eastern industry. The railroad ensured a production boom as industry mined
the vast resources of the middle and western continent for use in production.

○ MANIFEST DESTINY: The very essence of this buzzword is that God vested and
mandated America with virtues and values that other countries must emulate.
Americans believe that God appointed them a mission to build an empire
throughout the world, therefore they are to fulfill it and redeem and remake the
world in America’s image. Manifest Destiny became the prime motivation for a
strong sense of conviction that Americans are in charge to promote freedom
and protect liberty.

- The “city upon the hill” sermon of John Winthrop (1631): likened the
puritan colony in New England (early US) as a model for the
“regeneration of the world” : That the US was a special place
uncorrupted by the Old World (European)Institutions and conflicts. And
therefore, has a special mission and role in the world.
○ US FOREIGN POLICY ACTIVELY PROMOTED POLITICAL STABILITY AND ECONOMIC
EXPANSION ABROAD WITH FOCUS ON LATIN AMERICA AND ASIA:

- Latin America and Asia. U.S. foreign policy became increasingly a

presence on the global stage, as best symbolized by the Spanish
American War, fought in 1898. The Spanish-American War was an
expression of two powerful historic drives: the pull to the south, and the
pull across the Pacific toward Asia.
- The U.S. government and American business dramatically increased their
 “presence in Latin America,” especially throughout Central America and
the Caribbean. The presence of American business intensified with the
rapid expansion of American trade, loans, and investment in the region.

IN LATIN AMERICA:

○ U.S. government and American Business involvement in Latin America: A

region that was experiencing decolonization, nation building by independent

states and considerable political instability which resulted in constant

American military intervention and occupation, espearewlly after the turn of

the century.

- OLNEY PROCLAMATION: This reinforced the original purpose of the

Monroe Doctrine, that the U.S. had the right and now the power to

intervene and dominate its own backyard: foreshadowing what was to

come with the Spanish-American War and after.

○ Theodore Roosevelt’s Big Stick Policy

- The US was to exercise police power in Latin America - military inventions

were made in Colombia, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico in the first

decades of the 20th century.

- Speak softly, and carry a big stick: a policy of carefully mediated

negotiation (speaking softly) supported by the unspoken threat of a

powerful military (big stick)

○ William Taft’s Dollar Diplomacy

- The US regularly sent Marines to crush local rebellions, prop up old and

new regimes, and restore political stability in Central America and the

Caribbean, often to return again and again, coupled with economic and

financial supervision.
 - Also, designed to encourage U.S. investments in South and Central

America, the Caribbean, and the Far East. To implement this foreign

policy agenda, Taft used government officials to promote the sale of

American products overseas, particularly heavy industrial goods and

military hardware. In Taft's conception of foreign policy, the U.S. military

was a tool of economic diplomacy.

○ Panama Canal (1903)

- President Roosevelt instigated Panamanian independence from

Colombia, immediately recognized the new country and signed a treaty

giving Panama $10 million, plus $250,000 a year for rights “in perpetuity”

for a ten mile wide strip which became the Panama Canal Zone.

- IMPORTANCE: American leaders so badly wanted a canal to connect the

Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

○ American Involvement and power had carved out a regional sphere of

influence. During this period, the United States acquired its earliest colonial

possessions including Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

○ Latin America became the US “sphere of influence”

- “America’s Backyard” : The United States has shaped Latin American

History

IN ASIA:

○ American foreign policy was in search of political stability and U.S. economic

expansion in Asia as well, with China being the major prize.

- Alystne: “Merchants, missionaries, adventurers, sea captains, naval officers, and

consular officers crowded into the Pacific during the nineteenth century and
 spun a web whose strands extended to every part of the ocean.

○ Unlike Latin America, which was Christianized by the Spanish, there was a large

American missionary presence in Asia, particularly in Japan and in China .

○ SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 1898: The US attacked the remnants of the Spanish

empire in Asia, producing American Samoa, Guam, Wake Islands, and the

(most important) Philippines as colonies of the United States.

○ American Involvement in Asia and the Pacific, unlike in Latin America, resulted in

a much more limited use of force because of the region’s distance from

American shores and the strong military presence of England, France, Russia,

and Japan. However, it sent more than 120,000 troops from 1899-1902 to fight

its first counterinsurgency war and defeat a national independence

movement in the Philippines to preserve its colonial control.

○ Open Door Policy: An approach in China was adopted to maximize American

involvement and trade opportunities. Moreover, it is intended to protect the

rights of all countries to trade equally with China and confirming multi-

national acknowledgment of China’s administrative and territorial sovereignty.

IN EUROPE AND THE WHOLE WORLD:

○ Even though U.S. foreign policy was oriented toward the regions to its immediate

south and distant west, it became increasingly active in European affairs and

on the world scene in general.

○ While officially neutral during the early part of World War I, the United States

eventually became a major participant in bringing about the war’s outcome.

○ Woodrow Wilson was, in fact, highly instrumental in influencing the Treaty of

 Versailles, which officially ended the war and attempted to create a new liberal

world order through the League of Nations.

- TREATY OF VERSAILLES: A treaty that officially ended World War I. It

outlined the conditions of peace between Germany and the victorious

Allies, led by the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. Other

Central Powers (significantly, Austria-Hungary) signed different treaties

with the Allies.

- FOURTEEN POINTS DECLARATION: President Woodrow Wilson’s statement

about his vision for a stable, long-lasting peace in Europe, the Americas

and the rest of the world following World War I.

○ During 1918–1919, the United States even sent fourteen thousand troops—along

with the British, Canadians, French, Czechs, and Japanese—to occupy part of

the newly declared Soviet Union in an effort to aid the anti-Bolsheviks and

reestablish a Russian front against Germany.

○ The 1920s and 1930s are popularly thought of as the height of isolationism in U.S.

foreign policy. There is some truth to this, evidenced by the U.S. rejection of

American participation in the League of Nations, the rise of isolationist

sentiment among the American public and a strong peace movement, and

American reluctance to become actively involved in European conflicts

especially during the Great Depression and the early years of World War II.

- According to Wiliam Cohen, “Rejection of the Treaty of Versailles and lack

of membership in the League had little impact, however, on American

involvement in world affairs in the decade that followed. In the 1920s the

United States was more profoundly engaged in international matters

than in any peacetime era in its history.”

○ Not only was U.S. foreign policy active in Latin America and Asia, but the United
States also took a number of important diplomatic initiatives with the

Europeans and Japanese:

● Naval Disarmament Conference in Washington D.C. in 1922 which was the

1st major arms treaty in modern times.

- The same conference produced a Four Power Treaty and a Nine

Power Treaty involving Pacific island possessions and the rivalry in

China, signed by the United States.

- FOUR POWER TREATY: Enjoined the United States, Japan, Britain,

and France to respect each other's Pacific island dependencies

for 10 years.

- NINE POWER TREATY: Signed by the above five powers plus the

Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, and China affirmed China’s

sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity and gave all

nations the right to do business with it on equal terms.

● 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact between France and the US renouncing War. ●

The United States also began to play an active, though unofficial, role

relative to League of Nation’s activities.

● The US became very important to the world economy after World War I

because of debts Europe incurred, as a result of the debts and damage

incurred by the war, European economies became increasingly

dependent on the United States government and on American business

as a source of trade and finance.

- According to William Cohen, “Demand for American capital was

intense throughout the 1920s despite high interest rates.

Europeans needed dollars to purchase American goods needed

for reconstruction, and they borrowed regardless of cost. The rest

 of the world, which traditionally turned to European bankers, had

no alternative in the 1920s but to queue up in Wall Street”

- This foreshadowed the global leadership role that the United

States would soon fully occupy but was reluctant to take until

Europe once again rebuilt and launched a second world war.

○ 1920s: The US had become a great power and had acquired a formal and

informal empire.

- Controlled an empire that included not only the Caribbean basin, but

stretched across the Pacific, north and south, through Hawaii and

Alaska, Midway, Wake, Guam, Samoa, and the Aleutians, to East Asia

and the Philippines.

- Manufacturers nurtured markets and sired multinational corporations in

Europe, while mining and lumber interests scoured North and South

America. American entrepreneurs and missionaries wandered across

the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa.

- It was the dawning of what Henry Luce would later call the “American

century.”

○ However, outside of Latin America and Asia, US Foreign policy, especially in the

national security area, lacked coherence and consistent involvement.

- Therefore, this era of U.S. foreign policy is best remembered as

predominantly regionalist in orientation.

THE GLOBAL ERA

○ After the end of World War II, the US took an active leadership role in world

affairs and developed foreign policies of global consequence.

○ The post War under Roosevelt administration aims revolved around 2 key
 issues: economics and national security.

○ The US laid the groundwork for the establishment of an international economic

and political order that the world sees up to the present time.

Economy

○ The first goal was to restore economic stability in the US and worldwide—this

was essential because the US economy was intertwined with the global

capitalist economy, particularly the Western European economies destroyed

by the Great Depression and WWI.

○ The US, with its Western allies, formed the Bretton Woods System whose goal

was to restore and manage a liberal, global market economy based on free

trade, fixed exchange rates; it provided necessary assistance and created

rules for economic transactions through the creation of IBRD, World Bank, IMF,

and GATT.

○ The US believed that promoting a liberal capitalist world order was crucial to

ensure peace and minimize threats to national security.

National Security

○ The US constructed a new international political order that was stable,

promoted the national security of the US and its allies and prevented the

outbreak of further wars.

○ US President Franklin Roosevelt’s grand strategy was multilateral cooperation

based on a “sphere of influence” approach and the creation of the United

Nations.

○ The grand strategy was dependent on multilateral cooperation among

the members of the Grand Alliance during the war: US, USSR, UK, China

and France. Maintaining alliance within the group aims to challenge the

status quo and prevent another war from happening.

 ○ The “sphere of influence” approach: The US in Latin-America, the USSR in Eastern

Europe, Britain and France in Europe and their colonial possessions and China

(Nationalist) in East Asia.

○ Roosevelt’s overall strategy unraveled during the late 1940s with his death; the

hope for lasting cooperation among the 5 victors of WWII quickly eroded as

distrust, fear, and conflict between the US and the USSR escalated.

The US foreign policy went through to 3 periods after the World War

II: 1. Cold War period

2. Post-Vietnam period

3. Post Cold War era

COLD WAR PERIOD

○ The Cold War era was marked by continuity for 20 years specifically in national

security and economic prosperity which also gave light to the President’s

power to lead the country in this era.

○ During this period, Americans felt that their national security was at threat due

to the Soviet Union’s communism.

● A political vacuum has occurred after the World Wars as the British and

French empires had already collapsed by this time, only the US and

USSR were able to fill that void.

- The US is the only state who had the power to respond to the

Communist threat.

● In order to combat the communist threat, George Kennan proposed the

containment policy. He was the father and later became the critic of his

own ideology.

- In a long telegram Kennan sent to the US State Department from

 Moscow in 1949, he described the Soviet Union as weak and

insecure yet ideological and expansionist and needed to be

contained.

- This idea was also made known to the public through a publication

in 1947 under Kennan’s pen name: Mr. X.

- Kennan was an early advocate of a strong response to Soviet

communist expansion and the need to rebuild Western Europe

which was totally destroyed by the war.

- Kennan also became the critique of containment as US policy

makers took advantage of his recommendation and turned it into

a doctrine which relied too much on the use of force and applied

it too indiscriminately abroad.

● In 1947, the Truman doctrine was initially directed at containing Soviet

expansion in the eastern Mediterranean countries of Greece and Turkey.

- Measures that the US took to contain Communism and to implement

the Truman doctrine:

■ Economic and military aid to more than 100 countries

■ Mutual defense treaties with more than 40 countries

■ Regional pacts and alliances with NATO, SEATO, Western

hemisphere and Middle East

■ Fleets, submarines and naval bases in Philippines and

Thailand

■ Police advisers in Uruguay and Bolivia

- The US also acquired the habit of intervention in almost all the

chaos around the globe.

- The plan to execute their containment by:

■ Surrounding USSR and its allies, mostly in Eastern Europe

 and Asia, with military forces, alliances, and bases to

discourage USSR from initiating a military strike

■ Threat of use of conventional and nuclear weapons

■ Battling for the ‘hearts and minds’ of the local elite and

population thru foreign assistance to promote friendly

regimes, counterinsurgency efforts, and covert military

operations

■ Withholding of aid to Soviet allies

■ Setting aside diplomacy in East-West relations

● Bretton Woods II
- Only the US has the economic capability to promote a stable and

international market economy and support the European

economic recovery.

- Considering this, they tried to aid the European economies through

the Marshall Plan: an aid programme given by the US to the

countries which were extremely destroyed by WWII.

■ This aid was also “sponsored” by the US MNCs as they gave

investments and loans and opened up US markets to

imports; the US acting as the world’s banker.

- A market system was also promoted in the Third World through

private investment and development aid.

- With all this, national security policy became the predominant

concern of US leaders as their strategy of global containment

against the expanding Communist threat that was ongoing at

that time.

● Vietnam War

- To be able to execute the global containment, US interventions

 were furthered abroad.

■ They assisted the French to maintain its power over

Indochina and prevent Vietnamese independence under

the communist, Ho Chi Minh.

- Due to Kennedy’s assasination in 1963, Eisenhower took over and

took care of the Vietnam war intervention left by the former

president. He increased the military involvement to 18,000 troops

in order to combat the Communism threat in Vietnam.

- A consensus was made between the executive branch and the

Congress about US’ commitment to Vietnam as they believe this

will help contain the communism spread around the region (The

Domino Theory).

● Post-Vietnam War

- The Vietnam War was the first major war in the history of the United States

that it lost. Simply put, after investing as much as $30 billion a year and

over 500,000 troops during the height of American involvement in a war

that lasted at least fifteen years, the United States’ containment strategy

was unsuccessful in keeping South Vietnam an independent,

noncommunist country.

- AFTERMATH: As a result of America’s failure in Vietnam, the policy of

global containment of Soviet communism, which had prevailed since

World War II, was challenged by competing foreign policy perspectives

in American politics to the present day.

- The global containment of Soviet Communism was challenged by

competing foreign policy perspectives in American politics. - In 1971,

the US foreign economic policy was changed when Nixon violated

the principles of fixed exchange rates and free trade. He discarded

the convertibility of the US dollar to gold and placed a 10% surcharge

on Japanese imports.

- Due to their failure to contain Communism in Vietnam, the

continuity in the US foreign policy was replaced by inconsistency

and more incoherence after the Vietnam war. Their economy and

national security was heavily affected.

■ The foreign economic policy lacked coherence over time

due to the post-war economic issues it has faced both

domestically and internationally: oil and energy needs,

inflation, unemployment and environmental concerns.

■ With this, the Reagan administration imposed a laissez faire

policy of minimal state intervention in the international

political economy and emphasizing domestic growth.

■ In order to address the threat in national security, the Nixon

and Ford administrations changed the policy from the cold

war emphasis of containment to “realpolitik” which focuses

on counterbalancing the Soviet Union as a traditional great

power to promote global stability.

■ Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) - agreement

between the US and USSR to freeze the number of

production of intercontinental ballistic missiles

- Kissinger, the State Secretary and National Security Adviser during

the Nixon and Ford administrations, proposed the Détente policy.

■ He recommended that it was also best to encourage the

Soviet Union to change from a revolutionary and

expansionist actor into a “legitimate status quo actor” aside

from just containing the communism threat.

 ■ Détente is the easing of tensions between nations. It is

based on the concept of linkage that all parts of the world

are connected to each other and should be considered as

a balance of power system between the US and USSR.

■ To what extent did Kissinger really change US foreign policy

at this time?

- Carter rejects Containment as the basis of US foreign policy as he

sees the world as a complex interdependence wherein the US would

take the lead in building a cooperative global community. ■ He

emphasized multilateralism, preventive diplomacy,

focus on HR and negotiation.

■ Carter still replaced Containment during the Iran hostage

crisis in the late 1970s and intervention of Soviet troops in

Afghanistan in 1979.

Reagan Administration

○ Continue containment through Reagan doctrine: US pledged to support anti

Communist regimes worldwide

○ Characterized by large military build-up (SDI or the Star Wars program) ●

Strategic Defense Initiative - create a radical missile defense system; a

defense for nuclear attack

● Reaganomics did not sit well among allies and was modified during the

latter part of his administration.

● Reaganomics: widespread tax cuts, decreased social spending, increased

military spending, and the deregulation of domestic markets

● Gorbachev and Reagan signed the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty:

eliminating the entire class of nuclear missile

● Conclusion of US foreign policy in the global era WWII and the Cold War
 reflected international and domestic changes that produced 20 years of

continuity in US fp.

○ USFP devoted itself to the containment of communism worldwide and

supported a foreign economic policy based on American leadership of the

international political economy.

- Vietnam and the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system represented

international and domestic changes which questioned the capability of the

US in promoting containment and maintaining economic prosperity at

home.

- Post Vietnam War highlighted the foreign economic policy that has been

restored to a significant place; different foreign policy initiatives taken by

different administrations but these initiatives were moderated by some

circumstances.

Senator William Fullbright and “The Arrogance of Power”

○ He supported containment during the Kennedy and Johnson years ○ He tended

to see USSR as ‘imperialist’ rather than ‘communist’ ○ Made a distinction between

communism and Third World nationalism ○ “The US demonstrated an arrogance

of power by acting as the world’s policeman.”

○ His perspective helped to legitimize public dissent and promote a more open

dialogue on US foreign policy during the Post Vietnam and Post Cold War

years. ● Fulbright argued that there were two Americas:

One: generous, humane, and judicious; the other, narrowly egotistical

and self-righteous.

○ Fulbright was severely criticized by President Johnson, conservatives, and cold

warriors. Yet, Fulbright and his liberal internationalist perspective helped to

legitimize public dissent and promote a more open dialogue concerning the
 ends and means of U.S. foreign policy that has carried into the post–Vietnam

War and post–cold war years.

○ During the post–Vietnam War period, unlike the early cold war years, foreign

economic policy was restored to a significant place on the foreign policy

agenda, different foreign policy initiatives were taken by different

administrations, and each administration was eventually forced by

circumstances outside its control to moderate its initial policies.

POST COLD WAR ERA

○ Bush Sr.

- Influenced by a realpolitik and power politics approach to world politics,

leading to a strategy that remained heavily conditioned by the cold war

legacy of containment.

● The end of the Cold War gave birth to new opportunities and constraints

in the making of the USFP.

● His administration was caught between the strong legacy of the Cold

War and the great uncertainty of a post Cold War future

● No dominant and consistent foreign policy pattern prevailed. ● During the

Bush Sr. administration, the collapse of Communism, reunification of

Germany and integration of the EU happened.

● According to Deibel, given the collapse of the Soviet Union and

communism, no dominant and consistent foreign policy pattern

prevailed during the Bush administration. Instead, the Bush

administration displayed a “mixture of competence and drift, of tactical

mastery set in a larger pattern of strategic indirection”

● This was perhaps somewhat reminiscent of the Truman administration

following World War II, in that the Bush administration was trying to cope

with a postwar future of great uncertainty and conflict.

○ Clinton

● The Clinton administration was accused of considerable vacillation and

hesitancy in the conduct of U.S. foreign policy.

● Clinton was reactive abroad especially in the crisis in Somalia, former

Yugoslavia and Kosovo which caused their FP to be incoherent and

inconsistent.

● International economics highlighted the creation of WTO and passage of

NAFTA

● Despite its liberal internationalist orientation, the Clinton administration,

very much like the George H.W. Bush administration tended to become

increasingly “reactive” as opposed to “proactive”—abroad, and hence,

U.S. foreign policy was somewhat incoherent and inconsistent.

○ Bush Jr.
● During the campaign, much of the foreign policy emphasis was on the

need to lessen commitments, emphasize vital national interests, and

exercise greater humility abroad.

● George W. Bush’s foreign policy orientation initially seemed reminiscent

of his father’s approach. There did not seem to be much of a global

vision. Bush’s foreign policy, in fact, appeared to be heavily influenced

by a realpolitik and power politics approach to world politics, leading to

a strategy that remained heavily conditioned by the cold war legacy.

● The administration held a “hegemonist” view of American foreign policy,

committed to U.S. power and the willingness to use it. Numerous

members of the administration tended to view power, especially military

power, as the essential ingredient for American security, while also

rejecting traditional emphases on deterrence, containment,

 multilateralism, and international rules and agreements.

- A view fundamentally committed to maintaining a unipolar world and

acting unilaterally.

● Due to the 9/11 attacks, the administration focused on deterrence,

containment and destruction of terrorism and terrorist threats around

the world.

● Shift of focus from anti-Communism to global war on terrorism. ● Their

foreign policy became more aggressive and protective; emphasis on

homeland security, distinction between friends and foes, reliance on use of

force abroad and emphasis on threat and use of preemptive strikes.

● BUSH DOCTRINE: The administration’s strategy became much more

unilateral in orientation, saw little relevance of international

organizations like the United Nations, assumed international support is

often a function of coercion, that democracy and Western liberalism

should and can spread throughout the world, and, most importantly,

officially emphasized the threat and use of “overt” preemptive or

preventive strikes.

- The notion of “if you are not with us, you are against us” -

According to Hirsh (2002), The Bush Doctrine has been used to justify

a new assertiveness abroad unprecedented since the early

days of the Cold War— amounting nearly to the declaration of

American hegemony—and it has redefined U.S. relationships

around the world. The truth, however, is that there is still very little

clarity about the real direction of U.S. foreign policy and the war

on terror”
Reference:

Rosati, Jerel & Scott, J.. 2011. The Politics of United States Foreign Policy. Wadsworth.