Abstract
In 2003, William Kristol reflected that he and others at PNAC and the Standard. had not had particularly high hopes for George W. Bush as a foreign policy president. He had supported Bush’s opponent in the primaries, Senator John McCain (R-AZ), and was concerned about Bush soliciting advice from the Dean of Stanford University, Condoleezza Rice, who Kristol considered to be “a cautious realist.”2 However, Kristol’s pessimism was misplaced. Contrary to the contemporary perception that Bush was inclined toward a more modest view of America’s global role, the strategy sketched out by the Bush campaign, although by no means identical to the one put forward by Kristol, was very sympathetic to it.3 This should not have been surprising since Bush’s advisory team included many prominent neoconservatives and, in a more understated manner, even the “cautious realist,” Rice, invoked an expansive definition of the national interest.
Little more than a decade ago, the Cold War thawed … But instead of seizing this moment, the Clinton/Gore administration has squandered it.
George W. Bush, 3 August 2000
[T]his nation must not retreat.
George W. Bush, 15 February 20001
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Notes
Interview with William Kristol, 14 January 2003, PBS Frontlin.,http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/iraq/interviews/kristol.html (30 December 2009).
On the perception of Bush as a realist, see Ivo H. Daalder and James Lindsay, America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Polic. (Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC, 2003): 40–41
Stefan Halper and Jonathon Clarke, America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Orde. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2004): 112–13.
William Kristol, “A Conservative Looks at Liberalism,” Commentar., September 1993: 33–6. William Kristol and David Tell, “A Teetering Republican Majority,” WSt., 16 November 1998: 24. Fred Barnes, “John McCain’s Conservative Problem,” WSt., 6 March 2000: 15–16.
William Kristol and David Tell, “A Teetering Republican Majority,” WSt., 16 November 1998: 24.
Fred Barnes, “John McCain’s Conservative Problem,” WSt., 6 March 2000: 15–16.
William Kristol, “Not Clinton Is Not Enough,” WSt., 20 September 1999: 11–12.
William Kristol, “The Candidates and the Dictator,” WSt., 9 October 2000: 11.
Fred Barnes, “McCain’s Moment,” WSt., 19 April 1999: 11–12.
William Kristol and David Brooks, “The McCain Insurrection,” WSt., 14 February 2000: 21–23.
See also William Kristol and David Brooks, “The Politics of Creative Destruction,” WSt., 13 March 2000: 24–26.
David Brooks, “One Nation Conservatism,” WSt., 13 September 1999:
David Brooks, “The Anti-Baby Boomer Candidate,” WSt., 21 February 2000: 11–13.
Andrew Bennett, “Foreign Policy in the 2000 Presidential Campaign: From Kosovo to Cuba By Way of a Pop Quiz,” eJournal USA: U.S. Foreign Policy Agend., Vol. 5, No. 2, September 2000, http://usinfo.org/ wf-archive/2000/000927/epf307.htm. Section titled “Bush’s Hesitation on Kosovo” (30 December 2009).
Romesh Ratnesar, “Global Warnings: While Gore Pushes a Values-Driven Foreign Policy, Bush Is Reluctant to Intervene. Who Is Fit to Lead?” Tim., 30 October 2000, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,998337,00.html (19 November 2007). Kagan cited in George Packer, The Assassin’s Gate: America in Ira. (Faber and Faber, London 2006): 38.
James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush’s War Cabine. (Viking, New York, 2004): 248.
Marcus Mabry, Twice As Good: Condoleezza Rice and Her Path to Powe. (Modern Times, New York, 2007): 112–24.
Condoleezza Rice, “Promoting the National Interest,” Foreign Affair., January/February 2000: 45–64.
James Mann, “Is the New Secretary of State a Realist or a Neocon?” The Australia., 21 January 2005: 21.
David Hastings Dunn, “Myths, Motivations and ‘Misunderestimations’: The Bush Administration and Iraq,” International Affairs. Vol. 79, No. 2 (2003): 284. Packer, Assassin’s Gate. 37.
Speech by George W. Bush, “A Period of Consequences,” The Citadel, South Carolina, 23 September 1999, http://citadel.edu/r3/pao/addresses/ pres_bush.html (27 June 2008). All speech citations are taken from this source. For Kagan’s critical response, see AEI Transition to Governing Debate. For Kristol’s, see PBS interview.
On Bush’s use of the word “humility,” see Jamie Dettmer, “Bush Foreign Policy to Be Guided by Humility,” Insight on the News. 19 February 2001.
Kristol PBS interview. Speech by George W. Bush, “A Distinctly American Internationalism,” Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, California, 19 November 1999, http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/ intrel/bush/wspeech.htm (30 December 2009). All speech citations are taken from this source. Henceforth referred to as Regan Library speech.
William Kristol and Robert Kagan for the Editors, “A Distinctly American Internationalism,” WSt., 29 November 1999: 7.
Colin L. Powell, “U.S. Forces: Challenges Ahead,” Foreign Affairs. Winter 1992/93: 32–45.
Cori Dauber, “Implications of the Weinberger Doctrine for American Military Intervention in a Post-Desert Storm Age,” Contemporary Security Policy. Vol. 22, No. 3, December 2001: 66–90.
Bill Vann, “As Washington Eyes Latin ‘Axis of Evil,’ Coup Attempts Continue in Venezuela,” World Socialist Web Site. 28 October 2002,http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/oct2002/venz-o28.shtml (30 December 2009).
Frank J. Gaffney and Colleagues, War Footing: 10 Steps America Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free World (Naval Institute Press, 2005):
Chapter 9, section D. Richar. Gott, Hugo Chavez and His Bolivarian Revolutio. (Verso, London and New York, 2005): especially pp. 183–92 and 223–38.
Robert Kagan and William Kristol (eds.) Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign and Defense Polic. (Encounter Books, San Francisco, 2000). On Encounter Books and the Bradley Foundation, see http://www.bradleyfdn.org/encounter_books.asp. Quote taken from the book’s summary on the AEI web site at http://www.aei.org/book/484 (both 30 December 2009).
Ray Takeyh, “Re-imagining U.S.-Iranian Relations,” Survival. Vol. 44, No. 3, Autumn 2002: 23–36.
Ibid.: 14, 17. On the oil security paradigm, see Nick Ritchie and Paul Rogers, The Political Road to War with Iraq: Bush, 9/11 and the Drive to Overthrow Sadda. (Routledge, Oxon and New York, 2007).
William W. Harris, The New Face of Lebanon: History’s Reveng. (Marcus Wiener, Princeton, NJ, 2005): 279–314.
Charles Krauthammer, “Under a Thatched Roof, With Warren Christopher,” WSt., 6 May 1996: 31.
Daniel Pipes, “Syria’s Battle on All Fronts,” NYT. 23 April 1996, reproduced by MEF at http://www.meforum.org/article/pipes/277 (30 December 2009).
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© 2010 Maria Ryan
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Ryan, M. (2010). Election 2000. In: Neoconservatism and the New American Century. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230113961_10
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