Conservatism And The Post-cold War U.s. Policy

This thesis observes and analyses the U.S. foreign policy toward China after the Cold War from the angle of conservatism.Seen from theory, either as an idea or as a trend of thought, the core of conservatism is traditional value or behavior norm. Among them, freedom is the most important element. So from the nature, conservatism and liberalism are not different. As to the U.S. foreign policy, both conservatism and liberalism emphasis enlarging American traditional value, formulating policy in terms of idea, and opposing communism. We can conclude that the U.S has only one tradition, which is conservatism.Looking through the evolution of the U.S foreign policy toward China since the end of the Cold War, we can find that conservatism is a important factor that affects the decision making process. As a traditional conservative, the first Bush paid more attention to China's strategic importance for the U.S. national interest. His China policy is mainly a policy of moderate engagement, but he hope to change China's political system in the end. In the first term, Clinton Administration has also put forward the engagement policy, but he has not put this policy into effect. In the face of heavy pressure from the congress, Clinton Administration fell back step by step, and invited Taiwan leader Li Denghui to visit the U.S. The Sino-American relation basis has been damaged severely. In his second term, Clinton has got stronger will to practice engagement policy and has play a leading role in the process of decision making of China policy, but the congress conservatives still want to interfere administration's China policy. The engagement policy itself has some element of conservatism. The second Bush Administration is the most conservative one since Reagan-Administration. He has inherited the basic frame of his father's China policy, in the mean time, making more preparations against even containing China according to the new international situation. Pushed by the neo-conservative, the second Bush Administration once looked China as strategic competitor, and inclined to Taiwan. After "September 11", in order to serve its national interest, the U.S.