The Bush Doctrine
As we have talked about in the past U.S. foreign policy was based on the concepts of containment and deterrence. Containment meant stopping the spread of Communism. the Cold War ended with the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. While the United States emerged as the most powerful nation in the world, the attacks on September 11, 2001, proved that even powerful nations like the United States were vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
After the September 11 attacks, President George W. Bush developed a new American security strategy to prevent terrorists and dangerous regimes from developing, acquiring, or using weapons of mass destruction. The new strategy was called the Bush Doctrine.
It is safe to say that the Bush Doctrine took us in a radically new direction following 9/11. The Bush Doctrine advocates for the use of "preemption", defined as "preemptive and preventive action." As Richard Perle has stated in the documentary Why We Fight, "what is the big fuss about preemption?".
Calling themselves "neo-Reaganites," "neo-conservatives," or simply "hawks" -- set out to achieve the most dramatic change in American foreign policy in half a century: a grand strategy, formally articulated in the National Security Strategy released last September, that is based on preemption rather than containment and calls for the bold assertion of American power and influence around the world