DOCSLIB.ORG

AN ANALYSIS of POST-COLD WAR CONCEPTS in AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY: CONTINUITY OR CHANGE? by Ana Maria Venegas a Thesis Submitted

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
AN ANALYSIS of POST-COLD WAR CONCEPTS in AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY: CONTINUITY OR CHANGE? by Ana Maria Venegas a Thesis Submitted AN ANALYSIS OF POST-COLD WAR CONCEPTS IN AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY: CONTINUITY OR CHANGE? by Ana Maria Venegas A thesis submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Global Security Studies Baltimore, Maryland December 2014 © 2014 Ana Maria Venegas All Rights Reserved Abstract This thesis investigates post-Cold War concepts in US foreign policy. At the end of the Cold War, prominent political scientists and commentators argued, for various reasons, that the strategic environment was so dramatically different that the United States would no longer be able to engage the world as it had in the past. In an attempt to understand the ramifications of the evolution of the strategic environment, this thesis asked the question: Have the three post-Cold War presidents, William J. Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack H. Obama, continued to engage the world in ways consistent with previous administrations or have the broken from traditional concepts in American foreign policy? To answer this question, declaratory foreign policy as articulated in national security strategy documents and key foreign policy engagements were analyzed and compared to nine traditional concepts in American foreign policy identified by prominent historians and political scientists. The post-Cold War administrations continued to develop foreign policy consistent with the concepts identified by historians and political scientists suggesting a measure of consistency in the way the United States engages the world. Additionally, each president developed foreign policy that exhibited unique characteristics inconsistent with the traditional concepts. These policies were characterized by the importance placed on multilateral consensus; an emphasis on multilateral agreements and alliances to foster a stable international order; and the reliance on international organizations to address regional and global issues. This emerging concept in US foreign policy, termed multilateralism, supports both Kenneth Waltz’s argument that a unipolar environment incentivizes other states to attempt to challenge a polar state and Robert Pape’s assertion that soft balancing against the United States has begun to emerge. The emergence of multilateralism in all three post-Cold War administrations examined also supports the argument that despite ideological polarization in the American political system, administrations draw upon similar means of engagement to address similar situations or crises suggesting a measure of consistency across administrations. ii Thesis Committee Members: • Dr. Mark Stout—Defense Committee, Chair • Dr. Sarah O’Byrne—Defense Committee • Dr. Thomas Blau—Reader • Dr. John A. Gans Jr.—Reader iii Table of Contents CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 Methodology ............................................................................................................................................... 4 Definitions................................................................................................................................................... 6 Declaratory Policy; Employment Policy .............................................................................................. 7 Interests................................................................................................................................................. 7 Multilateralism ..................................................................................................................................... 8 Literature Review ........................................................................................................................................ 8 Defensive Expansionism ...................................................................................................................... 8 Exceptionalism ..................................................................................................................................... 9 Maximalism ........................................................................................................................................ 10 Regional Hegemony ........................................................................................................................... 10 Progressive Imperialism ..................................................................................................................... 11 Liberal Internationalism ..................................................................................................................... 12 Smart Power ....................................................................................................................................... 12 Global Meliorism ................................................................................................................................ 14 American Realism .............................................................................................................................. 14 Paper Structure .......................................................................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER TWO: WILLIAM J. CLINTON ............................................................................................ 16 Declaratory Policy..................................................................................................................................... 16 Interests............................................................................................................................................... 17 Engagement ........................................................................................................................................ 18 Enlargement ........................................................................................................................................ 20 Dual Containment ............................................................................................................................... 21 Employment Policy ................................................................................................................................... 23 Defensive Expansionism .................................................................................................................... 24 Maximalism ........................................................................................................................................ 26 Smart Power ....................................................................................................................................... 29 American Realism .............................................................................................................................. 33 Multilateralism ................................................................................................................................... 34 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 44 CHAPTER THREE: GEORGE W. BUSH ............................................................................................... 46 Declaratory Policy..................................................................................................................................... 47 Interests............................................................................................................................................... 47 iv Preemption .......................................................................................................................................... 49 Multilateralism ................................................................................................................................... 50 Unilateralism ...................................................................................................................................... 51 Employment Policy ................................................................................................................................... 52 Defensive Expansionism .................................................................................................................... 52 Maximalism ........................................................................................................................................ 56 Liberal Internationalism ..................................................................................................................... 59 Global Meliorism ................................................................................................................................ 62 American Realism .............................................................................................................................. 65 Multilateralism ................................................................................................................................... 68 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 72 CHAPTER FOUR: BARACK H. OBAMA .............................................................................................. 74 Declaratory Policy...................................................................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Brookings Institution
    1 THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION Brookings Briefing PUBLIC PHILOSOPHY: WHY MORALITY MATTERS IN POLITICS Tuesday, January 24, 2006 MICHAEL SANDEL WILLIAM GALSTON CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER E.J. DIONNE, JR., Moderator [TRANSCRIPT PRODUCED FROM A TAPE RECORDING] MILLER REPORTING CO., INC. 735 8th STREET, S.E. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20003-2802 (202) 546-6666 2 P R O C E E D I N G S MR. DIONNE: [In progress] —become important to their time not by seeking in a contrived and silly way something called relevance, they become important to their time by thinking clearly systematically and insightfully about public issues and public problems. And by that measure, Mike Sandel is truly one of our moment's most important political and public philosophers. So I loved it when Mike finally put out this collection called "Public Philosophy," of which we in general and, I personally believe, liberals in particular are very much in search of. I just want to read one brief passage from the beginning of Mike's book, which gives you a sense of how relevant his discussion is to our moment. He notes that the Democrats have been struggling for awhile over what some call the "moral values thing." "When Democrats in recent times have reached for moral and religious resonance," he writes, "their efforts have taken two forms, neither wholly convincing. Some, following the example of George W. Bush, have sprinkled their speeches with religious rhetoric and biblical references. So intense was the competition for divine favor in the 2000 and 2004 campaigns that a Web site, beliefnet.com, established a God-o- meter to track the candidates' references to God.
    [Show full text]
  • The Unipolar Moment Author(S): Charles Krauthammer Source: Foreign Affairs, Vol
    The Unipolar Moment Author(s): Charles Krauthammer Source: Foreign Affairs, Vol. 70, No. 1, America and the World 1990/91 (1990/1991), pp. 23-33 Published by: Council on Foreign Relations Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20044692 Accessed: 18/01/2009 12:25 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cfr. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Council on Foreign Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Foreign Affairs. http://www.jstor.org Charles Krauthammer THE UNIPOLARMOMENT m -* E ver since it became clear that an exhausted Soviet Union was calling off the Cold War, the quest has been on for a new American role in the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Review Essays
    Review Essays The Mechanics of Empire by John Hillen John Hillen ([email protected]) is a trustee of the Foreign Policy Research Institute and director of its Program on National Security. He is a contributing editor at National Review. Walter Russell Mead, Power, Terror, Peace, and War: America’s Grand Strategy in a World at Risk (New York: Knopf, 2004) $19.95 Niall Ferguson, Colossus: The Price of America’s Empire (New York: Penguin, 2004) $25.95 Robert Cooper, The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the 21st Century (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2003) $18.95 Francis Fukuyama, State-Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2004) $21 James Dobbins, et al., America’s Role in Nation-Building: From Germany to Iraq (Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND, 2003) $35 Just as it took a few years after World War II for the nature of the Cold War and the strategy of containment to become evident,1 so too the reality of the Bush doctrine and the practicalities of waging a war on terrorism and promoting democratization and globalization are only now becoming clearer. As active as the United States has been over the past three years, the operating tenets and mechanics of a durable grand strategy have yet to come. The books under consideration here address that dilemma. They all explicitly accept what has come to be the general principle of American grand strategy: that the surest way to attain lasting security is for the United States to enlarge the community of nations and other groups that generally ascribe to liberal political and economic values.
    [Show full text]
  • A Dysfunctional Triangle an Analysis of America's Relations with Israel
    SIT Graduate Institute/SIT Study Abroad SIT Digital Collections Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection SIT Study Abroad Spring 2015 A Dysfunctional Triangle An analysis of America’s relations with Israel and their impact on the current nuclear accord with Iran Andrew Falacci SIT Study Abroad Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection Part of the American Politics Commons, International Relations Commons, Military and Veterans Studies Commons, Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons, Peace and Conflict Studies Commons, and the Politics and Social Change Commons Recommended Citation Falacci, Andrew, "A Dysfunctional Triangle An analysis of America’s relations with Israel and their impact on the current nuclear accord with Iran" (2015). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. 2111. https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/2111 This Unpublished Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the SIT Study Abroad at SIT Digital Collections. It has been accepted for inclusion in Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection by an authorized administrator of SIT Digital Collections. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Falacci A Dysfunctional Triangle An analysis of America’s relations with Israel and their impact on the current nuclear accord with Iran Andrew Falacci Geneva, Spring 2015 School of International Training -Sending School- The George Washington University, Washington D.C 1 Falacci Acknowledgements: Robert Frost talked about looking towards “the path less traveled”, where all the difference would be made. I have lived the young part of my life staying true to such advice, but I also hold dearly the realization that there are special people in my life who have, in some way or another, guided me towards that “path less traveled.” I want to take the time to thank my family for pushing me and raising me to be the person I am today.
    [Show full text]
  • Living Under Drones Death, Injury, and Trauma to Civilians from US Drone Practices in Pakistan
    Fall 08 September 2012 Living Under Drones Death, Injury, and Trauma to Civilians From US Drone Practices in Pakistan International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic Stanford Law School Global Justice Clinic http://livingunderdrones.org/ NYU School of Law Cover Photo: Roof of the home of Faheem Qureshi, a then 14-year old victim of a January 23, 2009 drone strike (the first during President Obama’s administration), in Zeraki, North Waziristan, Pakistan. Photo supplied by Faheem Qureshi to our research team. Suggested Citation: INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION CLINIC (STANFORD LAW SCHOOL) AND GLOBAL JUSTICE CLINIC (NYU SCHOOL OF LAW), LIVING UNDER DRONES: DEATH, INJURY, AND TRAUMA TO CIVILIANS FROM US DRONE PRACTICES IN PAKISTAN (September, 2012) TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I ABOUT THE AUTHORS III EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS V INTRODUCTION 1 METHODOLOGY 2 CHALLENGES 4 CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT 7 DRONES: AN OVERVIEW 8 DRONES AND TARGETED KILLING AS A RESPONSE TO 9/11 10 PRESIDENT OBAMA’S ESCALATION OF THE DRONE PROGRAM 12 “PERSONALITY STRIKES” AND SO-CALLED “SIGNATURE STRIKES” 12 WHO MAKES THE CALL? 13 PAKISTAN’S DIVIDED ROLE 15 CONFLICT, ARMED NON-STATE GROUPS, AND MILITARY FORCES IN NORTHWEST PAKISTAN 17 UNDERSTANDING THE TARGET: FATA IN CONTEXT 20 PASHTUN CULTURE AND SOCIAL NORMS 22 GOVERNANCE 23 ECONOMY AND HOUSEHOLDS 25 ACCESSING FATA 26 CHAPTER 2: NUMBERS 29 TERMINOLOGY 30 UNDERREPORTING OF CIVILIAN CASUALTIES BY US GOVERNMENT SOURCES 32 CONFLICTING MEDIA REPORTS 35 OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    NOTES Introduction 1. Robert Kagan to George Packer. Cited in Packer’s The Assassin’s Gate: America In Iraq (Faber and Faber, London, 2006): 38. 2. Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke, America Alone: The Neoconservatives and the Global Order (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004): 9. 3. Critiques of the war on terror and its origins include Gary Dorrien, Imperial Designs: Neoconservatism and the New Pax Americana (Routledge, New York and London, 2004); Francis Fukuyama, After the Neocons: America At the Crossroads (Profile Books, London, 2006); Ira Chernus, Monsters to Destroy: The Neoconservative War on Terror and Sin (Paradigm Publishers, Boulder, CO and London, 2006); and Jacob Heilbrunn, They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons (Doubleday, New York, 2008). 4. A report of the PNAC, Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century, September 2000: 76. URL: http:// www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf (15 January 2009). 5. On the first generation on Cold War neoconservatives, which has been covered far more extensively than the second, see Gary Dorrien, The Neoconservative Mind: Politics, Culture and the War of Ideology (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1993); Peter Steinfels, The Neoconservatives: The Men Who Are Changing America’s Politics (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1979); Murray Friedman, The Neoconservative Revolution: Jewish Intellectuals and the Shaping of Public Policy (Cambridge University Press, New York, 2005); Murray Friedman ed. Commentary in American Life (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 2005); Mark Gerson, The Neoconservative Vision: From the Cold War to the Culture Wars (Madison Books, Lanham MD; New York; Oxford, 1997); and Maria Ryan, “Neoconservative Intellectuals and the Limitations of Governing: The Reagan Administration and the Demise of the Cold War,” Comparative American Studies, Vol.
    [Show full text]
  • SLS 183ES-72 ORIGINAL 2018 Third Extraordinary Session SENATE
    SLS 183ES-72 ORIGINAL 2018 Third Extraordinary Session SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 7 BY SENATOR CLAITOR CONDOLENCES. Expresses condolences upon the death of Charles Krauthammer. 1 A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 2 To express the sincere condolences of the Louisiana Legislature upon the death of Charles 3 Krauthammer. 4 WHEREAS, it is with deep regret and profound sorrow that the citizens of Louisiana 5 learned of the death of Charles Krauthammer on June 21, 2018, at the age of sixty-eight; and 6 WHEREAS, Charles Krauthammer was born on March 13, 1950, in New York City 7 to Shulim and Thea Krauthammer; and 8 WHEREAS, his father was from Bolekhiv, Ukraine, and his mother was from 9 Belgium; and 10 WHEREAS, when he was five years old, his mother, father, and older brother, 11 Marcel, moved to Montreal; and 12 WHEREAS, during the school year they resided in Montreal but spent the summers 13 in Long Beach, New York; and 14 WHEREAS, Mr. Krauthammer and his brother were educated at a Hebrew school, 15 and he attended McGill University in Montreal, graduating in 1970 with First Class Honors 16 in both economics and political science; and 17 WHEREAS, at the time, McGill University was a hotbed of radical sentiment, 18 something he says influenced his dislike of political extremism; and Page 1 of 4 SLS 183ES-72 ORIGINAL SCR NO. 7 1 WHEREAS, after graduating from McGill University, he studied as a 2 Commonwealth Scholar in politics at Balliol College, Oxford, before returning to the United 3 States to attend medical school at Harvard University; and 4 WHEREAS, Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • George W Bush Childhood Home Reconnaissance Survey.Pdf
    Intermountain Region National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior August 2015 GEORGE W. BUSH CHILDHOOD HOME Reconnaissance Survey Midland, Texas Front cover: President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush speak to the media after touring the President’s childhood home at 1421 West Ohio Avenue, Midland, Texas, on October 4, 2008. President Bush traveled to attend a Republican fundraiser in the town where he grew up. Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images CONTENTS BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE — i SUMMARY OF FINDINGS — iii RECONNAISSANCE SURVEY PROCESS — v NPS CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION OF NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE — vii National Historic Landmark Criterion 2 – viii NPS Theme Studies on Presidential Sites – ix GEORGE W. BUSH: A CHILDHOOD IN MIDLAND — 1 SUITABILITY — 17 Childhood Homes of George W. Bush – 18 Adult Homes of George W. Bush – 24 Preliminary Determination of Suitability – 27 HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE GEORGE W. BUSH CHILDHOOD HOME, MIDLAND TEXAS — 29 Architectural Description – 29 Building History – 33 FEASABILITY AND NEED FOR NPS MANAGEMENT — 35 Preliminary Determination of Feasability – 37 Preliminary Determination of Need for NPS Management – 37 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS — 39 APPENDIX: THE 41ST AND 43RD PRESIDENTS AND FIRST LADIES OF THE UNITED STATES — 43 George H.W. Bush – 43 Barbara Pierce Bush – 44 George W. Bush – 45 Laura Welch Bush – 47 BIBLIOGRAPHY — 49 SURVEY TEAM MEMBERS — 51 George W. Bush Childhood Home Reconnaissance Survey George W. Bush’s childhood bedroom at the George W. Bush Childhood Home museum at 1421 West Ohio Avenue, Midland, Texas, 2012. The knotty-pine-paneled bedroom has been restored to appear as it did during the time that the Bush family lived in the home, from 1951 to 1955.
    [Show full text]
  • The Bush Revolution: the Remaking of America's Foreign Policy
    The Bush Revolution: The Remaking of America’s Foreign Policy Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay The Brookings Institution April 2003 George W. Bush campaigned for the presidency on the promise of a “humble” foreign policy that would avoid his predecessor’s mistake in “overcommitting our military around the world.”1 During his first seven months as president he focused his attention primarily on domestic affairs. That all changed over the succeeding twenty months. The United States waged wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. U.S. troops went to Georgia, the Philippines, and Yemen to help those governments defeat terrorist groups operating on their soil. Rather than cheering American humility, people and governments around the world denounced American arrogance. Critics complained that the motto of the United States had become oderint dum metuant—Let them hate as long as they fear. September 11 explains why foreign policy became the consuming passion of Bush’s presidency. Once commercial jetliners plowed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it is unimaginable that foreign policy wouldn’t have become the overriding priority of any American president. Still, the terrorist attacks by themselves don’t explain why Bush chose to respond as he did. Few Americans and even fewer foreigners thought in the fall of 2001 that attacks organized by Islamic extremists seeking to restore the caliphate would culminate in a war to overthrow the secular tyrant Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Yet the path from the smoking ruins in New York City and Northern Virginia to the battle of Baghdad was not the case of a White House cynically manipulating a historic catastrophe to carry out a pre-planned agenda.
    [Show full text]
  • Drones, Targeted Killings and the Rhetoric of a Killable Enemy
    Master’s Thesis 2018 30 ECTS Faculty of Landscape and Society Department of International Environment and Development Studies Bruno Oliveira Martins (PhD) Professor Stig Jarle Hansen Drones, Targeted Killings and the Rhetoric of a Killable Enemy Erskine Yengoude Apiiyah Master of Science in International Relations Faculty of Landscape and Society DRONES, TARGETED KILLINGS AND THE RHETORIC OF A KILLABLE ENEMY A Reaper MQ-9 Remotely Piloted Air System (RPAS) taxis along the runway at Kandahar Air field, Afghanistan Photo Credit: Corporal Steve Follows RAF, Crown Copyright/MOD 2011] | P a g e The Department of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric, is the international gateway for the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). Established in 1986, Noragric’s contribution to international development lies in the interface between research, education (Bachelor, Master and PhD programmes) and assignments. The Noragric Master’s theses are the final theses submitted by students in order to fulfil the requirements under the Noragric Master’s programmes ‘International Environmental Studies’, ‘International Development Studies’ and ‘International Relations’. The findings in this thesis do not necessarily reflect the views of Noragric. Extracts from this publication may only be reproduced after prior consultation with the author and on condition that the source is indicated. For rights of reproduction or translation contact Noragric. © Erskine Yengoude Apiiyah, May 2018 [email protected] Noragric Department of International Environment and Development Studies The Faculty of Landscape and Society P.O. Box 5003 N-1432 Ås Norway Tel.: +47 67 23 00 00 Internet: https://www.nmbu.no/fakultet/landsam/institutt/noragric i | P a g e Declaration I, Erskine Yengoude Apiiyah, declare that this thesis is a result of my research investigations and findings.
    [Show full text]
  • Structure of Turkey-USA Bilateral Relations and Analysis of Factors Affecting Bilateral Relations
    University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School October 2019 Structure of Turkey-USA Bilateral Relations and Analysis of Factors Affecting Bilateral Relations Hanifi Ozkarakaya University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the Political Science Commons Scholar Commons Citation Ozkarakaya, Hanifi, "Structure of Turkey-USA Bilateral Relations and Analysis of Factors Affecting Bilateral Relations" (2019). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/8675 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Structure of Turkey-USA Bilateral Relations and Analysis of Factors Affecting Bilateral Relations by Hanifi Ozkarakaya A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Nicolas Thompson, Ph.D. Bernd Reiter, Ph.D. Steven Roach, Ph.D. Date of Approval October 16, 2019 Keywords: The American Foreign Policy, Turkey-USA Bilateral Relations Copyright © 2019, Hanifi Ozkarakaya TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ...............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Michael Ledeen, the Neoconservatives, and The
    Hugh B. Urban such conservative think-tanks as the American Enterprise Institute and 321.64:321.7 the Project for the New American Century, counting among their ranks politicians and militarists including Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rums- feld, and Dick Cheney, as well as such intellectuals as Irving Kristol, HUGH B. URBAN William Kristol, and (until recently) Francis Fukuyama. Despite their many ideological, cultural, and socioeconomic differences, these two factions have come together in the current White House and have found common ground in the policies of George W. Bush. Indeed, Bush represents a kind of structural link or ligament that helps tie these two, otherwise very different factions together: He embodies the MACHIAVELLI MEETS THE RELIGIOUS ideals of piety, morality, and family values that appeal to his strongest RIGHT: MICHAEL LEDEEN, THE base of popular support among evangelical Christians, while at the same time embracing the aggressive militarism and nation-building NEOCONSERVATIVES, AND THE POLITICAL agenda promoted by the Neoconservatives. The result is what David USES OF FUNDAMENTALISM Domke has called a kind of „political fundamentalism,” that is, „an in- tertwining of conservative religious faith, politics, and strategic com- munication.”5 In this essay, I will expand Domke’s notion of political funda- Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of mentalism by examining what I will call the political uses of funda- every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not mentalism6—that is, the strategic manipulation of religious beliefs, America’s gift to the world, it is God’s gift to humanity ..
    [Show full text]