American Exceptionalism In George W. Bush’s Anti-terroirsm Diplomacy (2001-2005)

American exceptionalism, as a particular political culture, is deeply rooted inUS diplomatic thoughts and has exerted certain influence on diplomatic practice. Fora long time, American exceptionalism has generated in people of the United Statesthe views of special destiny and responsibility which always make themunconsciously strengthen the superiority of their social development patterns andcultural values, thus idealizing its invasion and expansion in foreign policies. Byanalyzing the utilization of American exceptionalism in Bush’s policies and wars onterrorism, this thesis attempts to illustrate that American exceptionalism indeedprovides a legal framework of ideas for US foreign practice, and the lofty idealsproclaimed by American exceptionalism, when used in maintaining US worldhegemony and national interests, have totally functioned as a rhetorical device forBush’s anti-terrorism diplomacy.Besides introduction and conclusion, this thesis consists of three chapters.Chapter one illustrates that American exceptionalism is the ubiquitous theme of USpolitics. It firstly introduces the cultural background of American exceptionalism;then this chapter concerns the causes for being an influential factor in Bush’santi-terrorism diplomacy. The9/11terrorist attacks provided an opportunity for theBush administration in the pursuit of world hegemony in the21stcentury whileAmerican exceptionalism, the particular political culture, served as an idealexplanation for Bush administration’s anti-terrorism scheme. This point will beverified in the following chapters.Chapter two and chapter three respectively analyze the utilization of Americanexceptionalism as rhetorical device for Bush administration’s policies and wars onterrorism. America has always labeled itself as “land of liberty” and “democraticguard”. Since the9/11terrorist attacks, the Bush administration has constantlydeclared that both the United States and other countries around the world are threatened by terrorist forces. However, lacking freedom and democracy is indeedthe main factor of breeding terrorism, and only advancing democracy is the way tosolve this problem. Therefore, America took it for granted to carry out thepreemptive strategy and strengthen the pace of democracy promotion in the MiddleEast. Moreover, the Bush administration launched the first war in Afghanistan; andin2003, without the authorization of the UN Security Council, America invaded Iraqunder the pretext of Iraq’s possessing weapons of mass destruction. Americans havea religious complex on “save the world”; therefore, this strong sense of missionmakes the public believe that anti-terrorism war is a righteous one with the purposeof safeguarding human freedom and world peace.It can be reasonably concluded that through the rhetorical utilization of theseideals of American exceptionalism, the Bush administration managed to garnerenough support at home and abroad for US policies and wars on terror andsucceeded in pursuing world hegemony and national interests in the name ofanti-terrorism. In addition, this thesis also offers a newer understanding of USidealistic foreign policy based on exceptionalism. More importantly, it can spur us toredefine and rethink US exceptionalism through the cultural-root exploration.