U.S. Foreign Policy since 1980: President George W. Bush

Résumé du document

George W. Bush became president of the United States on 7 November 2000. He was the leader of the Republican Party which is a right-wing party based on traditionalism and deregulated free trade and corporations. George W. Bush accession to power was widely criticized during the United States presidential election of 2000. Indeed, some ballots had disappeared in Florida, where Jeb Bush, G.W. Bush's brother, was governor. Then, George W. Bush's presidency was contested. But the American Congress validated the votes and he became president. George W. Bush belongs to those politicians who advocate neo-liberalism. Besides, he is a neo-conservative, thus his policy was strongly turned towards foreign policy and aimed at intensifying the United States military capacity and increasing its global hegemony.

The American foreign policy had always been linked to the power of the army. The latter allowed them to take advantage of resources in many countries all over the world. After World War II, the United States destabilized several countries throughout the world, especially in Latin America and in Middle East, and in other parts of the world from the 1950's to nowadays. Moreover, from the 1970's to the 1980's, a transition occurred in the international economy. The assertion of neo-liberalism can be dated to the 1979 coup when the Federal Reserve decided to increase interest rates to unprecedented levels since World War II. Thus, capitalist owners and their financial institutions restored their position and incomes, diminished since the Great Depression, and, to an even larger extent, since the crisis of the 1970s. A new course of capitalism was established. Also, in the 1980's, when Reagan was president of the United States, he widely promoted this policy called neo-liberalism which aimed at increasing the American corporations' interests. G.W. Bush and his advisers mostly followed the same path developed earlier by the previous American presidents.

Indeed, the content of the American policy being to create a world where free trade can benefit to the American corporations, it is always accompanied by American military in case this policy is contested by foreign countries and if they try to become independent from them and nationalize their wealth. But the form to achieve this mean can change according to the global context in the world, the Cold War being finished and the attack on 11 September 2001 being the first attack on the American soil during G.W. Bush presidency. In this way, did G.W. Bush foreign policy represent an historic departure from traditional U.S. foreign policy?

Extraits

[...] Incidentally, G.W. Bush neo-conservatives advisers were also interested in the capacity to defend, economic growth, relations with allied and with other countries considered as potential rivals because restraining their economic growth or threatening it such as Russia, China, North Korea, Iran or Irak. Then, under G.W. Bush, assertive nationalists allied with neo-conservatives because they shared the same interests and skepticism concerning the consensus from the Cold War. The Importance of Having an Enemy This leads us to examine the slight difference between Bush foreign policy, ideologically speaking, and those of the previous American presidents. [...]

[...] This sounds rather familiar when we remember what happened to many countries all over the world like Guatemala, exploited by the United Fruit Company since the 1950's, or Iran, exploited by American oil companies during the same period. The attack on Twin Towers on 11 September 2001 allowed G.W. Bush to find this enemy. He could now focus on this new threat represented by terrorism and the “Axis of evil” to justify his actions. Bush started talking about an “Axis of evil” in 2002 and War on Terror was the first line of his foreign policy. The “Axis of evil” represented countries which, according to G.W. [...]

[...] Foreign Policy The Bush Administration: A New Foreign Policy? First, if we consider the American internal policy, which is linked to foreign policy, G W Bush was elected like the other American presidents, that is to say thanks to American corporations which financed him during his campaign. Also, the same corporations leading the American foreign policy could lean on Democrats as well as on Conservatives: “Because the truth is, George W. Bush did little more than continue the policies of the last eight years of the Clinton/Gore administration. [...]

[...] foreign policy? First, we are going to deal with the long-term U.S. foreign policy to see that the Bush administration followed the same path than his predecessors, Re agan or G.H. Bush. Indeed, the American foreign policy always fits into the scheme of the same economic imperialism, the American corporations widely influencing American politics. However, slight differences concerning the form used by the Bush administration will be developed to see why Bush's foreign policy could be wrongly seen as a new departure from US traditional foreign policy. [...]

[...] foreign policy and the history of American interferences since World War II. As developed above, the American foreign policy could not use the former Communist enemy as a scapegoat for United States imperialistic views anymore. This one had disappeared and left its place to a new one based on religious principles and clearly defined by G.W. Bush as the Islamic fundamentalists. Then, a new enemy could be used as a scapegoat. In fact, Middle East and Near East had always been interesting for American oil companies' profits thanks to their enormous reserves which represent two- thirds of the world's known supply: primary U.S. [...]