Understanding Bush Doctrine

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Understanding Bush Doctrine

• Robert Jervis A realist perspective

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• Carter Doctrine
• The United States would use military force if
  necessary to defend its interests in the Persian
  Gulf region.
• Reagan Doctrine
• The support of anti-communism movements
• Bush, Sr Doctrine
• the use of overwhelming force only after other
  options have been exhausted and only when vital
  national interest is at stake

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• Clinton Doctrine
• less definitive policy that supported
  intervention, militarily if need be, when
  American interests or values, including grave
  human rights violations, were at stake help to
  spread democracy throughout the globe
• Bush, Jr Doctrine
• Preemptive actions

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• A. The Basic elements of Bush Doctrine
• The type of political regime adopted in any state
  affects its behavior in foreign policy
• The view that great threats that can be defeated
  only by new and vigorous policies, in which
  preventive war is a major component of such
  policies
• A willingness to act unilaterally when necessary
  and,

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• The United States needs to assert its primacy in
  world politics in order to keep peace and
  stability in the world
• B. Democracy and Liberalism
• Democracy can be adopted in any society In this
  sense the Islamic culture is just like any other
  culture that is compatible with democracy
• Iraq will be a model for the rest of the Middle
  Eastern countries in the democratization process

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• The Problems of democratization process in the
  Middle East
• Would a democratic Iraq be stable?
• Would an Iraq that reflected the will of its
  people recognize Israel or renounce all claims to
  Kuwait?
• Would a democratic Palestinian state be more
  willing to live at peace with Israel than an
  authoritarian one, especially if it did not gain
  all of the territory lost in 1967?

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• September 11 gave Bush Administration a good
  opportunity to restructure its influence and
  agenda in the world politics
• C. Threat and Preventive War
• Deterrence is no longer a good policy in the post
  September 11 attacks
• Preventive war is a necessary strategy in the war
  on terrorism and in the war against states that
  developed WMDs

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• Examples of preventive wars in the past Israel
  attacks against Iraq in early 1980s
• Problems of Preventive wars
• The Problem of predicting threats and attacks
• The lack of accurate intelligence
• The Problem of repeating the same scenario in
  other cases

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• D. Preventive war strategy justifies
  unilateralism
• Why North Korea is an exception in this
  strategy?
• the Bush administration walked away from the
  Kyoto treaty, the International Criminal Court,
  and the protocol implementing the ban on
  biological weapons rather than try to work within
  these frameworks and modify them. The United
  States also ignored European criticisms of its
  Middle Eastern policy

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• E. Maintaining American Hegemony
• As a hegemonic power, the United States has the
  right to behave in a different way than other
  states
• Sustaining a high level of military spending that
  will guarantee the supremacy of American military
• The use of force on behalf of other countries so
  they will not need to develop potent military
  establishments of their own