Part front matter for Part II Bush Jnr: Empire in an Age of Terror

Extract

When Clinton left office he was replaced by a very different kind of politician in the shape of George W. Bush, a conservative of limited intellect but from a very powerful Republican dynasty whose rise to the White House – via a Supreme Court decision following a long dispute as to what really happened in Florida during the 2000 election – was bizarre by any standards. As a Brookings report was later moved to observe, ‘no work of fiction could have plausibly captured’ the many ‘twists and turns’ which finally led to Bush becoming president. Nor of course could anybody have anticipated what happened a few months later when on September 11 four planes acting as flying bombs not only killed close to three thousand people but completely changed the direction of US foreign policy. Though initially inclined to view the world in classically realist terms in which states were the primary actors, with the attack launched by a non-state actor espousing an ideology inspired by a particular reading of Islam, everything changed. It also allowed those around Bush (known in popular parlance as ‘neo-cons’) to articulate a decidedly expansive – even ‘imperial’ – strategy to deal with what they believed was the profound crisis facing the Middle East. America, they insisted had been a long liberal ‘holiday from history’, and if nothing else 9/11 was a stark reminder that the world was a very hostile place harbouring all sorts of very dangerous people and states. Certainly, sitting back and waiting was no longer an option. As the late Donald Rumsfeld put it, using an American footballing analogy, in a world of unknown unknowns ‘the best, and in some cases the only, defence is a good offence’. To see how this offensive translated into action, I focus in the two chapters which follow on the links between 9/11 and the Iraq War and explain how the Bush team exploited the crisis occasioned by the ‘Fall of the Towers’ in order to pursue a more ‘imperial’ foreign policy, and why this strategy was more likely to end in failure than success.

You do not currently have access to this chapter.

Sign in with email/username & password
Get email alerts
Save searches
Purchase content
Activate your purchase/trial code
Add your ORCID iD

Get help with access

Institutional access

Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:

IP based access

Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.

Sign in through your institution

Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institutionâ€™s website and Oxford Academic.

Click Sign in through your institution.
Select your institution from the list provided, which will take you to your institution's website to sign in.
When on the institution site, please use the credentials provided by your institution. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
Following successful sign in, you will be returned to Oxford Academic.

If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institutionâ€™s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.

Sign in with a library card

Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.

Society Members

Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:

Sign in through society site

Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see â€˜Sign in through society siteâ€™ in the sign in pane within a journal:

Click Sign in through society site.
When on the society site, please use the credentials provided by that society. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
Following successful sign in, you will be returned to Oxford Academic.

If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.

Sign in using a personal account

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.

Personal account

A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.

Viewing your signed in accounts

Click the account icon in the top right to:

View your signed in personal account and access account management features.
View the institutional accounts that are providing access.

Signed in but can't access content

Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.

Institutional account management

For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.

Metrics

Contents

Part front matter for Part II Bush Jnr: Empire in an Age of Terror

Extract

Email alerts

Contents

Part front matter for Part II Bush Jnr: Empire in an Age of Terror

Extract

Sign in

Personal account

Institutional access

Institutional account management

Get help with access

Institutional access

IP based access

Sign in through your institution

Sign in with a library card

Society Members

Sign in through society site

Sign in using a personal account

Personal account

Viewing your signed in accounts

Signed in but can't access content

Institutional account management

Purchase

Email alerts

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only