George W. Bush, Idealist

Bibliographic Data

ID4037166
AuthorsMichael J Mazarr (0009-0002-5768-7344, Georgetown University, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume79
Issue3
Pages503-522
Publication date2003-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-5850 • E-ISSN: 1468-2346
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/1468-2346.00319
OpenAlexW2065331732
LanguageEN
Citations received11

There is much anger and confused grumbling these days outside the United States—and in Europe in particular—about the character of the Bush administration's foreign policy. Perceived American unilateralism is raising hackles and questions. This article contends that current trends in US foreign policy can be better understood by realizing that many senior Bush administration officials are not ‘realists’, at least as that philosophy of world politics is classically understood. Many of the resulting views—that, for example, threats to security often originate in ideology rather than material strength—are demonstrably correct and even hopeful in their faith in long-term historical trends. But there may be no getting around the essential contradictions required of US foreign policy in an age when America is the leading power, when a new global community of trading democracies is emerging, and yet when a number of distinctly old-style threats to the peace remain very much in evidence. Washington could do more to smooth the edges of those contradictions in order to point up the idealism and hopefulness of US policy

Administration (probate law) · Alliance · Epistemology · Faith · Foreign policy · Idealism · Ideology · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Sociology · Unilateralism · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Philosophy