The role of neoconservative ideas in the security policies of the first George W Bush administration

Abstract

This thesis attempts to make a contribution to the debate on the role played by neoconservative ideas in the first George Walker Bush Administration’s (2000-2004) foreign and security policies. While supporting the view that such ideas have had a significant impact on the policies in question, the thesis moves beyond a simplistic cause-effect analysis of the relationship between ideas and policy to a concern with the greater complexity involved in the transformation of neoconservative ideas into US foreign and security policies. More specifically, and based on a constructivist analytical framework emphasizing the interactive relationship between ideas and material circumstances, the thesis draws attention to the crucial role played by September 11 terrorist attacks in paving the way for a neoconservative influence on US foreign and security policies. Through its focus on the interactive relationship between neoconservative ideas and various material circumstances, the thesis provides an improved account of how these ideas came to influence US foreign and security policies.