The Roots of the Bush Doctrine: Power, Nationalism, and Democracy Promotion in U.S. Strategy

Abstract

mocracy is central to the George W. Bush administration’s prosecution of both the war on terrorism and its overall grand strategy, in which it is assumed that U.S. political and security interests are advanced by the spread of liberal political institutions and values abroad. In an approach variously characterized as “democratic realism,” “national security liberalism,” “democratic globalism,” and “messianic universalism,” the Bush administration’s national security policy has centered on the direct application of U.S. military and political power to promote democracy in strategic areas. In a summer 2004 interview, Bush expressed his “deep desire to spread liberty around the world as a way to help secure [the United States] in the long-run.”1 According to Bush, “As in Europe, as in Asia, as in every region of the world, the advance of freedom leads to peace.”2 This generic statement of cause and effect is also applied speciacally to terrorism: “democracy and reform will make [Middle Eastern states] stronger and more stable, and make the world more secure by undermining terrorism at its source.”3 More broadly, the Bush administration proposes a liberal international order grounded in U.S. military and political power; as its 2002 National Security Strategy (NSS) contends, the unparalleled U.S. position of primacy creates a “moment of opportunity to extend the beneats of freedom across the globe . . . [the United States] will actively work to bring the hope of democracy, development, free markets, and free trade to every corner of the world.” This view appears to be contingent on the belief that U.S. power is “the sole pillar upholding a liberal world order that is conducive to the principles [the United States] believes in.”4 The Roots of the Bush Doctrine