The Foreign Policy of George W. Bush: "More of the Same" in the Second Term?

Year 2005, Volume: 04 Issue: 1, 63 - 78, 01.01.2005

Heinrich Kreft

Abstract

When asked whether they expected the foreign policy course of the second Bush administration to change, all American experts replied: "more of the same - but with a nicer face."1 Therefore the first part of this article will be dedicated to a detailed analysis of the past four years of American foreign policy. President George W. Bush's first term was characterized by his administration's response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.These events have led to a fundamental paradigm shift in United States foreign and security policy.2 Ten years after the end of the Cold War, the age of U.S. geopolitics was consigned to the history books, and an era of U.S. global politics was ushered in. The 20th century was strongly characterized by traditional geopolitics: American security essentially hinged upon preventing the domination of the Eurasian continent by any one European power. This aim was finally achieved with the collapse of the Soviet Union, from which the United States emerged as the world's sole superpower. Despite this turn of events, however, the security of the United States is still threatened, as was proven by the events of three and a half years ago. The attacks of 9/11 changed the United States' perspective on itself and the world. Not since the Japanese raided the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor have Americans been so deeply affected and united as they were by this first major attack on American soil since the British took Washington in 1814, burning the Capitol and the White House.