The Bush Doctrine: A Search For Global Hegemonic Stability?

Abstract

The pattern of distribution of power has a crucial impact on the international system. After the Cold War, the USA, as a sole superpower in the international system, tried to pursue its current position in the context of a strategy that is conceptualized as benign hegemony. This paper analyzes the theoretical bases of the transition of American foreign and security policy from benign hegemony to global hegemonic stability search efforts. In this extent, systemic power components which enable the pursuit of a unipolar structure of international system is of great importance for the USA. In the context of the arguments of democratic peace theory and preventive war that have been employed by the USA for a war against terrorism, impacts of its unilateral actions on relations with significant international actors such as Russia, the EU and China and implications for international normative order will be analyzed respectively.

Keywords

Hegemony, Hegemonic Stability, Democratic Peace Theory, International Normative Order, Preventive War

Citation

Ağır, Bülent Sarper, “The Bush Doctrine: A Search For Global Hegemonic Stability?”, International Relations, Volume 3, Issue 12 (Winter 2006- 2007), pp. 71-100.

Affiliations

• Bülent Sarper Ağır, Research Assistant, Adnan Menderes University, Department of International Relations