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UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER FACULTY OF ARTS ‘THE REIGN OF FREEDOM’ The Discourse of Freedom under the Administration of President George W. Bush (2001–2009) GRAHAM ANDREW SPENCER Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2011 CONTENTS Page Chapter One: Introduction I Thesis Description 2 II Background and Setting 4 (i) The power of a word 4 (ii) The ‘Freedom Agenda’ 10 (iii) The neoconservative influence 14 (iv) Summary 17 III Literature Review 18 IV Methodology of Research 25 V Presentation of Thesis 27 Chapter Two: The Analytical Framework I Introduction 31 II Isaiah Berlin’s Concepts of Freedom 34 III Discourse 50 IV Conclusion 52 Chapter Three: ‘The Gift of Heaven’ I Introduction 54 II The Foundations of American Freedom – Early Major Theorists 58 III The Commonwealthmen 72 IV Republicanism and Liberalism 76 V Applying the Analytical Framework 89 VI Conclusion 99 Chapter Four: Freedom and Neoconservatism I Introduction 102 II Neoconservative Thought 106 III Neoconservatism and Freedom 111 IV Conclusions 128 Chapter Five: Freedom as Foreign Policy I Introduction 132 II The Origins of the Bush Administration’s Foreign Policy 134 III The ‘War on Terror’ and Associated Discourse 145 IV ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’ 154 V Torture as an ‘Engine of State’ 171 VI Conclusion 181 i Chapter Six: Freedom at Home I Introduction 188 II Presidential Power 193 III Freedom and Homeland Security 203 IV The Retreat from Empiricism 214 V The Selling of Freedom 231 VI Conclusion 240 Chapter Seven: The Mask of Liberty 242 Bibliography 253 ------------------------------------- ii UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER ABSTRACT FACULTY OF ARTS DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ‘THE REIGN OF FREEDOM’ The Discourse of Freedom under the Administration of President George W. Bush (2001–2009) Graham Andrew Spencer i This thesis examines a paradox: namely, how the administration of President George W. Bush, which placed freedom at the core of its political ideology, developed and implemented policies that ran counter to the tradition of liberty to which, in the discourse of freedom that it constructed, it constantly appealed. The thesis suggests that the explanation for this paradox lay not so much in the conventional political sphere as in the administration’s understanding and interpretation of the meaning of freedom itself. This interpretation, the thesis argues, reflects the deep influence upon the administration of neoconservative ideology as well as that of the Christian right. Using Isaiah Berlin’s ideas about freedom as an analytical tool, the thesis firstly considers the interpretative paradigms of the American liberty tradition and the nature of freedom embedded within it together with the contribution made to that tradition by early theorists. It then explores the philosophical roots of neoconservatism and draws conclusions about the interpretation of freedom embedded within that political ideology. It is argued that the American tradition of liberty is grounded in an ideal of freedom which, using Berlin’s terminology, is essentially ‘negative’ in character, whilst neoconservatism adheres to a concept of freedom that is ‘positive’, and, accordingly, liable to perversion to something akin to its opposite. The thesis demonstrates neoconservative influence upon the administration and its interpretation of the meaning of freedom by exploring a number of key policy areas. In foreign affairs it considers the background of neoconservative foreign policy objectives and how these were manifested in the administration’s conduct of the ‘war on terror’ and the Iraq war following the events of 9/11. In domestic terms the thesis makes reference to the exercise of presidential power, the suppression of dissent and the manipulation of science. Through the consideration of these examples the thesis concludes that the Bush administration amply demonstrated the perversion to which positive liberty is prone. ii BIBLIOGRAPHY1 Artz, Lee, ‘Political Legitimacy, Cultural Leadership and Public Action’, in Bring ‘Em On: Media, Politics, and the Iraq War ed. by Lee Artz and Yahya R. Kamalipour (Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2005), pp. 7–21 Aldridge, A. 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