Containing a Rogue State: The Iraq Policy of The Clinton Administration

Abstract

When George W.H. Bush lost the 1992 election to Bill Clinton, many commentators blamed it on his preoccupation with foreign policy. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Gulf War behind, there was a feeling that the New International order, a term coined by Bush, would make it easier to concentrate on domestic affairs. Still, the foreign policy team that President Clinton drafted from among the New Internationalists of the Carter era saw an opportunity to adjust America’s international vision to post-cold war realities. By merging the moral-universalistic creed of the McGovern faction of the Democratic Party with economic liberalism, Liberal Internationalism was officially adopted by the administration.