On Tuesday 27 June 2006 Dr Philip Gordon, Director, Centre on the United States and Europe, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution spoke on "The Rise and Fall of the Bush Doctorine".
Dr Gordon discussed the contrast between President Bush's early foreign policy, marked by its realism, with the behaviour pursued after the 9/11 attacks. The combination of an acute sense of vulnerability, and an awareness of the magnitude of American power, helped to produce a revisionist and ambitious foreign policy described as the 'Bush Doctrine', which focused on the use of unilateral military might to fight the war on terror and engender democracy.
However, President Bush's second term has been marked by a return to more realist policies. This is due in part to the American public's diminishing sense of urgency regarding the terrorist threat since 2001. The failures in Iraq have also led to a decrease in confidence in the ability of the United States to effectively reshape the world through its economic and military strength.
Dr Gordon argued that this shift has been illustrated by the Bush Administration's new, less hawkish policy towards Iran, the toning-down of its attempts to promote democracy in the Middle East, and the replacement of key personnel from the first Administration who had so prominently promoted the Bush Doctrine. However, he also acknowledged that a change in the American perception of either its vulnerability or its power (another catatrophic attack or a dramatic improvement in Iraq) could allow for a return to the more revisionist policies evident between 2001 and 2004.
Philip Gordon is an expert on American foreign policy, Europe, Middle East, NATO and Turkey. He has previously held the positions of: Director for European Affairs, National Security Council; Senior Fellow for U.S. Strategic Studies, International Institute for Strategic Studies; Professor, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University. He co-authored Crescent of Crisis: U.S.-European Strategy for the Greater Middle East with Ivo H. Daalder and Nicole Gnesotto and co-authored Allies at War: America, Europe, and the Crisis Over Iraq with Jeremy Shapiro.
