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Is the Bush Revolution over?

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Abstract

Several observers have argued that the radical transformation of American foreign policy wrought by George W. Bush is already over. They argue that the ‘Bush Revolution’ was merely a result of the short-term conjuncture of neoconservative influence and the impact of September 11, 2001, and that this temporary deviation has been ended by the American failure in Iraq. Yet the causes of the Bush Revolution are more fundamental and long-term than this argument implies. It is in the combination of the shift to a militarily unipolar international system and the dominance of the Republican Party by its conservative wing that the real roots of the Bush foreign policy lie, and neither condition is likely to alter in the foreseeable future. Moreover, although the Iraq War has led to some shifts in policy, the Republicans' selection of John McCain as their presidential candidate confirms the continued vitality of the Bush Revolution.

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Notes

  1. 1 The Pentagon's 1997 Quadrennial Defense Review called for the maintenance of a ‘pre-eminent military force’ and the achievement of ‘full spectrum dominance’; www.fas.org/man/docs/qdr/.

  2. 2 In the same way that former National Security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski once described the policy of Détente as being ‘buried in the sands of the Ogaden’ www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/ogaden.htm.

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  1. Department of Politics & Philosophy, Geoffrey Manton Building, Rosamond Street West, off Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6LL, UK

    Steven Hurst

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Hurst, S. Is the Bush Revolution over?. Int Polit 46, 157–176 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2008.42

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