Bush's Characteristic And His Foreign Policy Decision

Since Sep.11th, 2001, the Bush administration has made a series ofmajor foreign moves, such as building the allies on Anti-terrorist War,waging the Afghan War and the Iraq War, involving in Color Revolution andso on. Has Bush started to reconstruct the world? Has the United States'global strategy changed to be aggressive? Although the academia arguedardently on the issue, the view of policy-maker was always ignored byscholars. In fact, president's leadership influenced deeply on thepolicy-making process of the United States. As presidents'characteristics are different, their foreign policy orientations aredifferent too. Such traits may often influence the President's decisionand behavior. Based on Barber's theory of the classification of typesof leaders, this thesis paper argues that Bush is a passive-positive oneby observing his character, mode of behavior and world view. The traitof this type is willing to enjoy political power and prefer to maintainexisting arrangement. We can find Bush's political character accordingto his policy-making behaviors such as: reluctant to put enough energyinto the political areas, dependent on his aides and staff, and lack ofinsight and precaution measures against incoming crisis. And we can seethe foreign orientation he manifests in foreign policy practice is passive.This orientation influences on Bush's policy performance, especially in"Greater Middle East Initiative". He always announced his grandaspirations in public, but actually he didn't move aggressively, andretreated repeatedly from previous objectives. The Bush administrationhas squandered the opportunity to promote the initiative, lead thepolitical reconstruction in the Middle East. As a consequence of Bush'spassive type and his potential orientation to escape from political work,his unilateralism tends to be defensive and it is closer to isolationismrather than imperialism. Although Bush has the sudden ambitions, hesuffers from a lack of mature political ideal and corresponding energyto political practice. Therefore, this thesis paper made the conclusionthat the Bush administration has not started to control the world, anda New Empire is just a dream of some conservatives.