THE BEST SIN TO COMMIT: A THEOLOGICAL STRATEGY OF NIEBUHRIAN CLASSICAL REALISM TO CHALLENGE THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT AND NEOCONSERVATIVE ADVANCEMENT OF MANIFEST DESTINY IN AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY David Fraser Cowan A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St. Andrews 2012 1. Candidate’s declarations: I, David Fraser Cowan hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 80,000 words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. I was admitted as a research student in September, 2009 and as a candidate for the degree of PhD in May 2010; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St Andrews between 2009 and 2012. 2. Supervisor’s declaration: I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of PhD in the University of St Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree. Date 7/9/12 signature of supervisor Stephen R. Holmes 3. Permission for electronic publication: In submitting this thesis to the University of St Andrews I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. I also understand that the title and the abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker, that my thesis will be electronically accessible for personal or research use unless exempt by award of an embargo as requested below, and that the library has the right to migrate my thesis into new electronic forms as required to ensure continued access to the thesis. I have obtained any third-party copyright permissions that may be required in order to allow such access and migration, or have requested the appropriate embargo below. The following is an agreed request by candidate and supervisor regarding the electronic publication of this thesis: Embargo on both [all or part] of printed copy and electronic copy for the same fixed period of 5 years: publication would preclude future publication; Date 7/9/12 Signature of candidate David Fraser Cowan signature of supervisor Stephen R. Holmes A supporting statement for a request for an embargo must be included with the submission of the draft copy of the thesis. Where part of a thesis is to be embargoed, please specify the part and the reasons. ABSTRACT While few would deny America is the most powerful nation on earth, there is considerable debate, and controversy, over how America uses its foreign policy power. This is even truer since the “unipolar moment,” when America gained sole superpower status with the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War. In the Cold War Reinhold Niebuhr was the main theological voice speaking to American power. In the Unipolar world, the Religious right emerged as the main theological voice, but instead of seeking to curb American power the Religious right embraced Neoconservatism in what I will call “Totemic Conservatism” to support use of America’s power in the world and to triumph Manifest destiny in American foreign policy, which is the notion that America is a chosen nation, and this legitimizes its use of power and underpins its moral claims. I critique the Niebuhrian and Religious right legacies, and offer a classical realist strategy for theology to speak to America power and foreign policy, which avoids the neoconservative and religious conservative error of totemism, while avoiding the jettisoning of Niebuhr’s theology by political liberals, and, the political ghettoizing of theology by his chief critics. This strategy is based on embracing the understanding of classical realism, but not taking the next step, which both Niebuhr and neoconservativism ultimately do, of moving from a prescriptive to a predictive strategy for American foreign policy. In this thesis, I argue that in the wake of the unipolar moment the embrace of the Religious right of Neoconservatism to triumph Manifest destiny in American foreign policy is a problematic commingling of faith and politics, and what is needed instead is a strategy of speaking to power rooted in classical realism but one which refines Niebuhrian realism to avoid the risk of progressing a Constantinian theology. Table of Contents Chapter One: Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 The Neocon Cometh: The “Silent Majority” Finds its voice .................................................... 4 The Rise and Fall of the Religious Right ............................................................................... 15 A Global Power: Manifest Destiny in the 21st Century ………………………………………………………… 21 Chapter 2: The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of Reinhold Niebuhr ………………….…………………………… 24 Niebuhr’s America: Doing a Power of Good? ....................................................................... 28 Not the End of History, but Beyond History ………………………………………………………………………...32 Looking for the Best Sin to Commit: Criticism of Niebuhr …………………………………………..………. 39 Critique I: Charges of Constantinianism - Hauerwas and Yoder ........................................ 41 Critique II: The Poverty of Niebuhrianism - Radical orthodoxy ......................................... 48 Conclusion: Niebuhrianism at the Crossroads…………………………………………………………….………. 51 Chapter Three: Manifest Destiny: America’s Geographic Predestination ...................................... 56 The Great Experiment ........................................................................................................ 57 Phase One: Manifest Destiny Articulated ..………….………………………………..……………………..……. 65 Phase Two: Manifest Destiny as Exceptionalism..………………………………………………………….…… 72 Phase Three: Wilsonian Internationalism and Realism……………………………………………………….. 76 Keeping Manifest Destiny at Bay: The Realist Takeover of American Foreign Policy ………….. 82 Chapter Four Manifest Destiny at the End of the American Century .......................................... 93 Phase Four: Manifest Destiny and the Religious Right .......................................................... 93 The Religious Right Coalition: Naming the Different Constituents .…………………………………….. 98 1. The Christian Right ................................................................................................. 100 Conservative evangelicals………... 104 Fundamentalists......................... 107 Pentecostals ………..……………………110 Roman Catholics …………………..…. 112 Mormons ……………………..…………. 114 Other Conservative Christians ..…115 2. The Non-Christian Religious Right ........................................................................... 117 Jews……………………………….……….…118 The “Israel Lobby” ……….………..… 120 Muslims……………………….……….…. 122 The Religious Right: Republican or Republicanized? ………………………………………………………… 123 Chapter Five: The Religious Right: A Serpent’s Kiss? ................................................................. 127 Manifest Destiny and the Presidents: Nixon to Bush II ...................................................... 131 Locating Totemic Conservatism ......................................................................................... 149 Chapter Six Conclusion: The Best Sin to Commit ...................................................................... 156 Totemic Conservatism and Manifest Destiny ................................................................... 157 A Niebuhrian View on America’s Manifest Destiny ……………………………………………………..…… 159 Niebuhr and the Neocons: the best sin to commit? ……………………………………………………….… 164 A Return to Classical realism …………………………………………………………………………………………... 174 Speaking to Power ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….… 179 Foreign Policy 1: Soft power and a War on AIDS ............................................................ 181 Foreign Policy 2: Hard power and a War on Terror ........................................................ 184 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………....189 BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 195 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to many individuals and conversations since I commenced this work. In particular, I would like to thank: John Micklethwait (Editor, The Economist), John Sciutto (ABC News) for their conversations on the Religious Right, and, views of America in the Middle East. Senator John Danforth for his thoughts on the nature of religious debate in his political career, and, Jonathan Aitken (Nixon biographer) on Nixon. Dr. Timothy Lynch (at the time Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London, now University of Melbourne) for his thoughts and encouragement. Professor Roger Scruton (like Niebuhr and Hauerwas, a Gifford lecturer at St Andrews) for his discussions with me on conservatism, in St Andrews and Washington DC. Professor Mark Noll for his reading of my historical material and the generous time he spent discussing the material and my thesis while visiting Cambridge. There are many people to thank who were generous with their time and thoughts, and I wish to thank Michael Cromartie (Vice-president, Ethics and Public Policy Center), Pete Wehner (ex- Bush II administration), Jimmy Kemp (Kemp Foundation) and Daniel McCarthy (Editor, The American Conservative),