Font Size: a A A

The Neo-conservatives And State Building

Posted on:2009-01-01Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:H S ShiFull Text:PDF
GTID:2206360272462840Subject:International relations
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
This paper is an attempt to explore the neoconservatives'ideas on the issue of nation-building and their influence over the Bush Administration in the wake of 9/11. In the face of the enormous damage inflicted upon the U.S. by Al Qaeda, the neoconservatives seized the chance and successfully sold their political agenda to the Bush Administration and the American public. They urged the Bush Administration to take the failed or the rogue states as the primary targets in the war on terror and make nation-building efforts in these states with military power if necessary. The prescription they gave for the cure of the cancer of terrorism was democracy and they faithfully believed in it.This paper first examines how the neo-cons exerted their complex influence on the issue of nation-building."Regime change"and"post-conflict reconstruction"are the two dimensions of meaning in the concept of nation-building. On the issue of regime change, the neoconservatives went into very detailed analysis and acted as a power house for Bush administration's decisions on Iraqi War. On the issue of post-conflict reconstruction, by contrast, the neo-conservatives'miscalculation was, to a large extent, a significant force that sank the American power in the quagmire of the post-war Iraq.This paper then proceeds to provide a rough anatomy of the neoconservative ideas behind their nation-building agenda. It was, as the argument goes, their particular neoconservative ideas and their Cold War experience that, in a large sense, determined their nation-building concepts. This is not to suggest that ideas are the single most important factor in the shaping of one's or a government's perspective on foreign policy and world affairs. There are a number of other factors that can intervene between the abstract plane of ideas and policy choice, execution and outcome. What this paper does is to take a constructivism approach in understanding how neo-cons'ideas helped defining the U.S.'s identity and interest for them on the international political landscape, and their ensuing outlook on the U.S.'s grand strategy of foreign policy.
Keywords/Search Tags:neoconservatism, the Bush Administration, nation-building, "9/11"
PDF Full Text Request
Related items