U.S. Foreign Policy: Regime Change After The Cold War

The disintegration of the Soviet Union was followed by the collapse of the bipolarpattern headed by U.S. and USSR, two superpowers in the Cold War. As U.S. survived asthe only superpower, its national power and international prestige reached an all-timehigh. The American people were overjoyed at the breakdown of its old rival in the pastfour decades, believing that U.S. was bound to win the Cold War with no strongadversary appearing later in history and an American-dream-based world was somewherein the near future. They also held that they had the historic obligation to save the world,change it in accordance with their own pattern and provoke the regime change of rivalstates for “imposing American democracy”. They waged wars brazenly and built akin-American regime. In their view, only a radical change in regime would eradicate theroot of terrorism and push forward economic strength and social democracy.Analyzing how Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama administrationschanged their regimes according to global strategy and foreign policy since the Cold War,this thesis expounds the post-Cold War American foreign policy---the essence ofrealizing and protecting American national interest and global hegemony. It follows thatwhile American foreign policies were experiencing readjustments and evolutions in itsideas and decisions since the end of Cold War, an internal historic continuity remainsapparent. From Clinton’s “engagement and enlargement” strategy, Bush’s“pragmatism-based power strategy” to Obama’s “smart power” diplomatic strategy, theU.S. endeavors to maintain its unipolar hegemony, realize its global interest against allodds and follows its dominance strategy through it all. Regime change strategy, anoffensive diplomatic strategy, contains uncompromising implementation methods andspecific strategic goals that reveal fully American real target of its foreignpolicy---seeking to establish a U.S.-centered world order that maintains its dominanceand carries out its rules for the expansion of its interest to the greatest degree.