Unit:
Κατεύθυνση Διεθνείς και Ευρωπαϊκές ΣπουδέςLibrary of the Faculties of Political Science and Public Administration, Communication and Mass Media Studies, Turkish and Modern Asian Studies, Sociology
Author:
Mavrikopoulou Maria
Supervisors info:
Παναγιώτης Ι. Τσάκωνας, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Πολιτικής Επιστήμης και Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, ΕΚΠΑ.
Original Title:
Ιδεολογικοί παράγοντες διαμόρφωσης της αμερικανικής στρατηγικής:Η περίπτωση της κυβέρνησης George W. Bush μετά την 11η Σεπτεμβρίου
Translated title:
Ideological factors that shape the american strategy: The case of George W. Bush administration in the post 9/11 era.
Summary:
This master thesis aims to examine the ideological factors that shaped the American grand strategy during the George W. Bush administration in the post 9/11 era. The terrorist attacks of 9/11, according to some analysts, transformed the nature of international politics and security. Concerning the case of United States the transformation of its grand strategy was expressed via the Bush Doctrine and marked the transition from multilateralism to unilateralism, the shift from a defensive to an offensive strategy based on preemptive strike, and the turn from the peaceful promotion of democracy to regime change and the democratization via force, like the case of the Iraq war.
The masterminds behind the American strategy in the Bush administration, designed it based on the neoconservative ideology, which can be summarized as a mixture of hard wilsonian and neoreaganite principles. Central idea in the neoconservative school of thought is the expansion and preservation of the American benevolent hegemony through its overwhelming military force. The way to accomplish this goal is through the expansion of the American type of democracy by any means necessary and the democratization by force, mainly in the Middle East area. That is exactly what the Bush administration tried to accomplice, by replacing the post Cold War strategy that aimed to maintain the geopolitical stability through deterrence and multilateralism, with one that aimed at the American primacy through unilateral preventive war against Iraq.
Main subject category:
Social, Political and Economic sciences
Keywords:
Ideology, 9/11, George W. Bush, Bush Doctrine, Neoconservativs, Exceptionalism, Wilsonianism, Orientalism, Manichaeism
