Bushadministrationens syn på internationellt samarbete och internationell rätt samt politisk-teoretiska tanketraditioners inverkan på administrationens utrikespolitik
American foreign policyBush-administrationInternational cooperationInternational lawInternational politicsMultilateralismNational securityNeoconservatismNSSTerrorismUnilateralismUS foreign policyWar on terrorWar on terrorismBush-doctrineExceptionalism
Essay in Political Science, Advanced Course, by Christoffer Hagström?The Bush Administration´s view on international cooperation and internationallaw and political-theoretical traditions influence on the administration´s foreignpolicy?Supervisor: Jan OlssonThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the American foreign policy, particularly with regard tointernational cooperation and international law. The two following research-questions are used inorder to fulfil the purpose: (1) what is the Bush-administrations´s view of of the place forinternational cooperation and international law in American foreign policy?, and (2) how does theadministration´s foreign policy correspond to dominant political-theoretical thought-traditions? Thetraditions used are: liberalism, realism and neoconservatism. The sources of the study mostlyinclude literature and policy-documents. The author conducts qualitative and quantitative contentanalysis of the Bush-administration´s policy document National Security Strategy of the UnitedStates from March 2006. First the document is summarized based on different criteria followed bycategorizations of ideas connected with realism, liberalism and neoconservatism in the document. Inthe quantative analysis value-words that are appropriate for the various traditions is chosen. Thefrequency of those words can be seen as indications of the influence of the traditions in the thoughtsof the Bush-administration, but is mostly seen as a complement to the qualtative analysis. The mainconclusions of the paper are that the Bush-administration most often wish to act according tointernational law and to cooperate with other actors internationally in the long run, it may even benecessary. In the short run however, it may act outside the parameters of international organizationsand international law in order to accomplish foreign policy-goals. Matters related to the security ofthe American state and people is considered much more important than international cooperationand law. Liberalism seems to be the tradition that has most affected the Bush-administration´sforeign policy. It is followed shortly thereafter by realism and neoconservatism seems to have hadthe least influence on the the thought-traditions. All of the them has been active in the making of theforeign policy.