Bush's Policy Research Articles

Military Entertainment After 9/11: A Case Study on Call of Duty Modern Warfare Franchise

The Call of Duty franchises are renowned for being the best-selling first-person shooter games globally and boast the highest number of concurrent players worldwide. The franchise has significantly impacted the creation of war narratives, particularly about heroism and values exported from the United States. Notably, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (CoD: MW) was the first series to exhibit the characteristics and iconography of a modern war film. This study examines the narrative themes and structural components of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series since 9/11. The interaction of the 'dangerous frontier' has not been directly discussed in Call of Duty narratives, as a result of the combination of Bush's defense policy, economic globalization, and neoliberalism in the post-9/11 era. The study revealed that the game design and narrative of Call of Duty Modern Warfare relies on a dichotomy of "dangerous borders," where audiovisual technology, storytelling, and cultural symbols are employed to starkly distinguish between advanced attributes within the borders and barbaric mapping outside of them. The game also disseminates values of just war which are based on the American Exceptionalism Theory. Meanwhile, recent research has revealed a stronger correlation between narrative changes within the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare franchise over the past five years and recruitment advertising with war entertainment, and that this dynamic has reduced the impact of narrative styles within the media in the post-9/11 era.

The Presidency of George W. Bush by John Robert Greene

Reviewed by: The Presidency of George W. Bush by John Robert Greene Joel Webster The Presidency of George W. Bush. By John Robert Greene. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2021. Pp. 421. Notes, bibliographical essay, index.) While not the first attempt to make sense of the presidency of George W. Bush, John Robert Greene's book takes advantage of both a suitable distance from his subject—over a decade since "the most tumultuous presidency of the modern period" (xi)—and the availability of the archival records of the George W. Bush Presidential Library that opened to research in 2013. As the latest installment of the American Presidency Series from the University Press of Kansas, this work clearly sets the bar for future attempts to understand Bush's two terms. This is not, nor does it attempt to be, a traditional biography. It is instead a political analysis that utilizes fresh evidence and time to ponder its conclusions. Despite being academic in nature, it is highly readable and strikes a strong balance between narrative and analysis. Greene's criticisms of the existing literature, academic or otherwise, about President Bush is its almost single-minded focus on the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent War on Terror. While this is a significant piece of the story that must be told, Greene seeks to show that there was more than that to the man and to his administration's plans and accomplishments. Greene starts at the beginning of Bush's life and assesses how his West Texas roots and patrician ties, through both family and formal education, defined and challenged his early life. Greene emphasizes Bush's effort to learn from his father's political career, to distance himself from it, and to prove that he was his own successful man. Part of this process is shown through two life-altering events: quitting heavy drinking and adopting born-again Christianity. Another key to revealing that Bush's story is bigger than the War on Terror is Greene's illustrating that much of Bush's domestic policy was built on his experience as governor of Texas. This pre-presidential material takes up almost one-third of the content. As for Bush's time in the White House, Greene discusses the dark days after September 11, Hurricane Katrina, and the opening of two Middle Eastern wars to understand how and why the Bush Administration handled and mishandled them. Bush's use of bipartisan solutions and support, another strategy from his days as governor, and his self-identification as a "compassionate conservative" (32), provided Bush and the Republican Party with opportunities to reform education, the welfare system, and Medicare. In the realm of foreign policy, Greene suggests that Bush's version of conservatism pushed him to provide massive funding to curtail AIDS in Africa. Given Greene's criticism of the focus in Bush literature on September 11 and the War on Terror, one can see his efforts here as [End Page 606] an attempt to shift that focus and in the process unveil other aspects of President Bush and his presidency. Future authors will undoubtedly find some fault with Greene's work either as new evidence comes to light or other lines of argument are employed, but as a single-volume history of President George W. Bush that is told in just over three hundred pages of text, this book will stand as the one with which all forthcoming works must contend. Joel Webster Texas Tech University Copyright © 2022 The Texas State Historical Association

U.S Foreign Policies and Strategies of Bush, Obama and Trump Administration in Afghanistan

President Bush focused on military action and regime change, with the goal of disrupting Al Qaeda's ability to launch terrorist attacks. Obama increased the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and focused on building up the capacity of Afghan security forces and increasing diplomatic efforts. Conversely, Trump continued the drawdown of U.S. troops, increased airstrikes and attempted to revive peace talks with the Taliban. In February 2020, the U.S. signed a peace agreement with the Taliban, including a timetable for the withdrawal of all troops by May 2021. However, the peace process stalled, leading the Biden administration to extend the withdrawal deadline to August 31, 2021, and eventually withdraw all U.S. troops from the country.

When the World Seemed New: George H. W. Bush and the End of the Cold War

One-termers are the jilted lovers of presidential history. While nominees who never won the presidency are spurned and forgotten, those who blew reelection bids are scorned—and often underestimated. Fortunately for George H. W. Bush—alas not for his country—his successors' many failures are causing many to appreciate his many achievements. Bill Clinton's roguish behavior made some Americans miss Bush's dignity. George W. Bush's and Barack Obama's fidgety foreign policies made many miss the elder Bush's steady strategy. And Donald J. Trump's Trumpiness made many miss Bush—along with every other predecessor. Jeffrey A. Engel's book comes at the right time—boosting Bush's presidential stock for the right reason. The founding director of Southern Methodist University's Center for Presidential History, Engel has written a well-researched, well-organized, well-argued analysis that, ever so elegantly, does not sacrifice objectivity while demonstrating that, in foreign policy terms, this “underappreciated president” was the right man at the right place at the right time (p. 8).

George W. Bush's foreign policies: principles and pragmatism

George W. Bush's foreign policies: principles and pragmatism

Looking at the No Child Left Behind Act from a systems thinking perspective

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was the focus of President Bush's education policy in 2002. After Obama became president in 2009, he also included NCLB in his educational policies. It has been 13 years since the act was signed into law. The policy has drawn a lot of attention and has met with mixed reviews from administrators, superintendents, educators and researchers. This paper presents a brief review of the systems thinking literature, which is used to explain the responses to the NCLB initiative. This paper discusses some strengths and weaknesses of the NCLB implementation based on my literature review. Lastly, this paper proposes a strategy using the framework of systems thinking for facilitating education reform in the USA. It also suggests finding alternatives in the USA and studying successful examples from other countries to reach system-wide excellence in order to increase student learning and maximise teachers' performance.

Looking at the No Child Left Behind Act from a systems thinking perspective

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was the focus of President Bush's education policy in 2002. After Obama became president in 2009, he also included NCLB in his educational policies. It has been 13 years since the act was signed into law. The policy has drawn a lot of attention and has met with mixed reviews from administrators, superintendents, educators and researchers. This paper presents a brief review of the systems thinking literature, which is used to explain the responses to the NCLB initiative. This paper discusses some strengths and weaknesses of the NCLB implementation based on my literature review. Lastly, this paper proposes a strategy using the framework of systems thinking for facilitating education reform in the USA. It also suggests finding alternatives in the USA and studying successful examples from other countries to reach system-wide excellence in order to increase student learning and maximise teachers' performance.

Does the Flaw Lie within Us? Classical Realism and Unrealistic Policy

This paper argues that one of classical realism's most useful contributions may be to explain “unrealistic” behaviour of the sort that structural realists find vexingly contrary to their prescriptions. The paper engages in detail with the writing of two of the primary scholars of the classical realist school, Hans Morgenthau and Reinhold Niebuhr, to demonstrate that these theories do not posit simplistically that individuals or states always act “selfishly” in their own interests. Rather, states and statesmen are routinely burdened by what might be called “failures of insight”: an inability to conceive of their own interests and preferences objectively when held alongside those of others. As a result, powerful states are prone to conflating their own particular national interests with universal or systemic interests, hindering their capacity to anticipate or deal effectively with resistance on the part of other actors who insist on defining their own interests in contrary ways. Having established this conceptual framework, the paper provides two illustrations of this phenomenon in action in US foreign policy: President Woodrow Wilson's interventionism in Mexico and George W. Bush's policy of regime change in Iraq.

Did Bush Democratize the Middle East? The Effects of External–Internal Linkages

THE WAVE OF PRO‐DEMOCRACY MOVEMENTS and openings that swept the greater Middle East region in 2010–2012 caught the world by surprise.While the future of these openings is uncertain, their occurrence, as well as democratic changes in the region since 2001, are in need of explanation. What motivated and empowered the incidence of pro‐democracy protest movements and regime liberalizations during this time? A large literature has highlighted the importance of external as well as internal factors in democratization processes. The role of the United States as the most important external actor in the Middle East must be given due attention. More narrowly, the possible effects of U.S. policies under president George W. Bush between 2001 and 2008 deserve special attention because of the striking ways in which his administration sought to bring about such changes and because those changes occurred during and shortly after the Bush policies were enacted. This paper first reviews theories that link external factors to democratic change. It then examines both correlative as well as qualitative evidence about the effects of the Bush policies on democratic change in the region. The results show that the Bush “Freedom Agenda” generally contributed in positive ways to undermining authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and to strengthening their opponents, factors that interacted with domestic

Rivals for Influence on Counterterrorism Policy: White House Political Staff Versus Executive Branch Legal Advisors

The Obama administration struggled throughout its first term to live up to its campaign promises to reverse the most objectionable of the Bush administration's counterterrorism policies and to govern by “rule of law” principles. It is clear that most of these policies continued with minimal changes, and some even expanded to include more controversial elements such as targeted killings. The most visible policy failure has been the inability to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. Efforts to accomplish this closure became entwined with two other unfulfilled campaign promises—rejection of the use of military commissions for prosecuting terrorist suspects and halting the practice of indefinite detention of uncharged suspects. In this article I analyze the impact of the role played by the rivalry for influence between White House political advisors and policy principals, on the one hand, and executive branch legal advisors, on the other, on the failure to roll back Bush's counterterrorism policies.

Obama and the Middle East: the end of America's moment?

During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised to distance the United States from the neoconservative foreign policy legacy of his predecessor, George W. Bush, and usher in a new era of a global, interconnected world. More than two years have passed since his inauguration, and the reality of President Obama's approach is in stark contrast to the ebullient and optimistic image that he originally built up. In fact, Obama is not committed to redefining U.S. foreign policy in a transformational way, but calibrating and correcting the Bush policies, and reclaiming the neorealist approach that defined America's foreign policy since WWII. Taking stock of Obama's first two and a half years in the White House, this book places his engagement in the Middle East within the broader context of U.S. foreign policy since 9/11 and examines key areas that have posed a challenge to his administration: negotiation with Israel and Palestine, troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan, engagement with the Arab Spring, intervention in Libya, and the death of Osama bin Laden.

Comparing the Foreign Aid Policies of Presidents Bush and Obama

ObjectivesWe compare the rhetoric and actual foreign economic aid disbursements of the Bush and Obama Administrations.MethodsWe use U.S. foreign aid data from 2001 to 2013 (expected) to test our propositions.ResultsOur analyses suggest strong similarities but also key differences between presidencies. First, both presidents used aid to encourage development and democracy but also ignored the human rights policies of recipient countries. We actually find human rights abuse to be positively correlated with aid receipts, even after controlling for wealth and regime type; changes in rights policies have no effect in data for either administration. Second, overall aid disbursements have not increased under President Obama in real or percentage terms, again despite campaign and inaugural promises to do otherwise. Finally, our analyses confirm the proposition that the Bush Administration favored those countries that supported the war in Iraq—the “Coalition of the Willing”—by providing them with substantially larger aid allocations than would otherwise be predicted.ConclusionsThe Obama Administration has seemingly reversed the unstated policy of aid payments for U.S. partnership by penalizing Coalition members with aid allocations far below the rates predicted for other, similar countries.

Strategic reassurance - nowa koncepcja czy słabość polityki USA wobec Chin?

The author of this article analyzes a new idea introduced to the American policy toward China upon taking over by Democrats and the Administration of the White House. Searching the answer to the question what 'strategic reassurance' is in bilateral and multilateral US-China relations he enters the course and results of B. Obama's first state visit to China in 2009 and surveys strategic interests of the US and China in the Pacific area. He comes to the conclusion that 'strategic reassurance' is a rule and it is not a concept of American policy in bilateral relations with China, which for its substance and political nature will not be introduced to them, following the rule of 'status quo' in the Taiwan Strait, a new quality and will not eliminate tensions that may originate in them. Functioning of this rule in bilateral relations meets strategic interests of China, because theoretically it increases a foresee ability proportion of B. Obama's new Administration actions and in comparison to G. W. Bush policy creates a perspective for more stable environment. In the context of the US multilateral relations this term meets conceptual criteria of a new strategic vision of American policy toward Asia, including key role of ASEAN i, in order to balance the powers rank changing as a consequence of rising China, with no undermining its position in the region.

Endnotes on Israel–Iran relations

Endnotes on Israel–Iran relations

El ciclo político-económico en Estados Unidos (1991-2004). De la nueva economía de Clinton a la economía de guerra de Bush

The Bush mandate is mediated by 9/11. This forced the political-economic managers to a tough test of credibility, solvency and effectiveness. With the attacks also collapsed a way of managing the apparent prosperity of the New Economy. The Republican Bush team presented an electoral economic offer with a strong neoliberal content, with a liberalization package at the service of large corporate and industrial interests, with which the Republicans tried to turn the page to the Clinton era. Instead, 9/11 produced the Keynesian resurrection to the point that the ever-vigilant Federal Reserve and its watchdog Greenspan dusted off the Keynesian manual for immediate action. This second part of this paper summarizes the considerations that explain the mutation of Bush's economic policy management, from the neoliberal component of the 2000 program to the interventionist practice to overcome the strong recession after 9/11.

Interests, Identities, and Synthetic Biology

It's too soon to know what the most important disagreements over synthetic biology will look like: how the disputes will be framed, what the stakes will be, and who will line up against whom. Some public policy disputes, even those with a great deal at stake, can be brought to apparent closure. Others continue to fester despite repeated efforts to reach a compromise. So far, synthetic biology has not ignited any raging policy conflagrations. The report of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues was generally enthusiastic about the technology, sober about the risks that could come from inadvertence or malign intent, and focused mainly on fostering sensible processes for managing risk and encouraging professional and public education and dialogue. Recommendation 10 in the report hints at concerns not exhausted by the usual lists of risks and benefits: Discussions of moral objections to synthetic biology should be revisited periodically as research in the field advances in novel directions. Reassessment of concerns regarding the implications of synthetic biology for humans, other species, nature, and the environment should track the development of the field. (1) The report notes briefly a variety of arguments offered that synthetic biology somehow alters our conception of human agency and responsibility, blurs the line between the living and nonliving, the natural and the unnatural, or threatens humankind's relationship to The commission refers to such concerns as objections; it notes that similar concerns have had a long and important place in bioethical discussions and debates and acknowledges that they deserve ongoing consideration as part of comprehensive efforts to assure that this field progresses within appropriate ethical boundaries. (2) It finds none of these claims particularly compelling or persuasive in the current context of synthetic biology. But Recommendation 10 leaves the door open to resurrect or recast such arguments. Efforts to articulate intrinsic or nonphysical concerns can seem strained and abstract, with overly subtle distinctions and rather grand pronouncements. a provocative essay, Joachim Boldt and Oliver Muller claim that synthetic biology alters humankind's role in the cosmos from manipulatio to ex existendo and that this change results in a fundamentally altered relationship to They identify what they take to be the crucial distinction: Using the abilities of nature through cultivation, manipulation or even exploitation differs from reinventing nature. (3) an effort to reinforce the distinction between old-fashioned genetic engineering and the grand ambitions of synthetic biology, they write: In synthetic biology, the aim is not to amend an organism with a certain quantity of altered characteristics (that is, to manipulate); instead, it is to equip a completely unqualified organism with a new quality of being (that is, to create a new form of life). (4) Try to imagine a broad political movement organized around the slogan Manipulatio, OK; creatio ex existendo, no! Hard to see that happening. But there are times when philosophical subtleties and not-easy-to-articulate ideas become powerful--when they are enlisted in what I want to describe as disputes over identities. Identities and Interests When then-President George W Bush ordered that federal funding for research on human embryonic stem cells would be allowed, but only on cell lines created prior to the moment his policy was announced, a fierce battle over public policy and public opinion was formally launched It took the election in 2008 of President Barack Obama for any change in that policy. Within weeks of his inauguration, President Obama rescinded the Bush policy and permitted, with limits, federal funding for research on cell lines created after August 9, 2001. Legal challenges swiftly followed. …

President Obama’s National Space Policy: A change in tone and a focus on space sustainability

The major features of President Obama’s new US space policy are discussed and particular aspects are compared with those of the previous Bush policy. In many cases there are similarities of substance but the tone of the latest policy is more outward looking and inclusive, with a far greater emphasis on cooperation, both internationally and with the private sector. And while some complain that the policy does not sufficiently emphasize US leadership, a statement by President Obama on the day of its release makes clear that this remains a paramount goal. Serious questions remain, however, about implementation of the new policy, particularly where it requires substantial government funding such as human spaceflight and the restructured weather/environmental satellite programs.

The ideological roots of failure: the application of kinetic neo-liberalism to Iraq

This article argues that American policy towards Iraq went through four major shifts between the invasion in 2003 and the announcement of the surge in 2007. The best way to understand the Bush administration's evolving policy towards Iraq is by examining the ideological parameters within which it was made. The article assesses various approaches to understanding the relationship between ideology, policy making and foreign policy, concluding that ideology shapes the paradigm and analytical categories within which foreign policy is made. A major change in foreign policy originates either from the decision-maker consciously recognizing and attempting to rework the ideational parameters within which policy is made or in reaction to ‘discrepant information’ or ‘anomalies’ that destabilize the paradigm and its analytical categories. The article goes on to examine the extent to which both neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism shaped George W. Bush's foreign policy. It identifies a series of major analytical categories that originate from within these two doctrines and shaped policy towards Iraq. The article argues that the four major shifts in Bush's policy towards Iraq were forced upon the administration by the rising tide of politically motivated violence. Ultimately this violence forced Bush to abandon the major analytical categories that, up to 2007, had given his policy coherence. In order to extricate his administration from the quagmire that Iraq had become by 2006, Bush totally transformed his approach, dropping the previously dominant neo-liberal paradigm and adopting a counter-insurgency doctrine.

Reckless Disregard: The Bush Administration's Policy of Cutting Taxes in the Face of an Enormous Fiscal Gap

The Bush Administration's policy of sharply cutting taxes while increasing government spending is both misguided and harmful. Presumably rationalized in private as a way of shrinking government over the long term without paying a current political price, it in fact increases the government's distributional intervention by handing money to current voters at the expense of younger and future generations. The Bush policies have increased the future tax increases that are likely to be necessary. In addition, they are likely to require additional Social Security and Medicare cuts that can be seen in large part as negative taxes, refunding some of the positive lifetime net taxes that future retirees will by then have paid. Reducing future negative taxes is a lot like increasing future positive ones. The fiscal gap is largely growth-proof because so much government spending, no less than taxes, is effectively pegged to the size of the economy. This means that we cannot outgrow it in the manner of past wartime national debts. High economic growth would concededly make default on the government's implicit obligations considerably less painful. However, the fiscal gap has the potential significantly to reduce economic growth, for two main reasons. First, it may result in large tax increases on workers to keep benefits flowing to seniors, reducing saving because the workers would have saved more of the transferred funds. Second, it may lead to an Argentina-style meltdown in the U.S. government's position as a borrower in world capital markets, potentially yielding chronic inflation, unemployment, and bank and currency crises that affect our economic productivity for an indefinite period. The Bush Administration's policy of increasing the fiscal gap ought to be reversed as soon as possible, on both the tax and spending sides of the ledger. How this ought to be done is beyond this article's scope, although I have discussed aspects of it elsewhere. Current seniors ought to share in the burden, however, both through tax increases and Social Security and Medicare reform that should take account of differences in people's ability to pay. Unfortunately, policy changes in the near future are more likely to make things worse than better.

Exception to the rule: the Obama administration and China-U.S. relations

Abstract The election of an opposition party candidate into the White House usually leads to friction between China and the United States. This paper argues that Barack Obama's election will serve as an exception. Instead of taking a harsher line on China, President Obama would inherit many of Bush's pragmatic policies on China. This has already been proven by the stable development of relations between the two countries during the better part of Obama's first year in office. However, by the end of the year, relations between China and the United States appeared to be heading into some troubled waters. This paper begins with some thoughts on the election of an opposition candidate in general and that of Obama in particular in terms of its impact on China-U.S. relations. Then, it discusses the opportunities and challenges the election of Obama posed to China-U.S. relations. Afterward, it comes up with some speculations on the prospects for China-U.S. relations. And finally, it makes a preliminary assessment of the impact of Obama's election on China-U.S. relations during the first year of the Obama administration.