American Foreign Policy in a New Era

Clear convincing arguments for a change in US foreign policy regarding the future risks and threats.

Robert Jervis contends that the world political system today is fundamentally different from anything that has come before it. His book describes the impact of three significant changes on world politics and the theory of deterrence. He also analyzes the Iraq war and the Bush Doctrine in light of this new paradigm. His purpose for writing this book is (1) to develop his theory of a new paradigm (2) evaluate its impact on world politics and the theory of deterrence and (3) argue against the sustainability of the Bush Doctrine. Argument: Jervis acknowledges that his book "explicates and explains more than evaluates and prescribes," (Jervis; 2005: 2). Nevertheless, after outlining his argument for a new paradigm in Chapters One and Two, he devotes the rest of the book to evaluating the Iraq war and deconstructing the Bush Doctrine. The following section will reconstruct the argument that Jervis develops in the first two chapters. A new paradigm: (Chapters One and Two) Jervis posits three fundamental changes to the current world political system. The most significant change is the existence of a Security Community comprised of the leading powers that are natural rivals to each other : "This is a change of spectacular proportions, perhaps the single most striking discontinuity that the history of international politics has anywhere provided," (Jervis; 2005: 13). For the first time in the history of the current nation-state system, the leading great powers no longer fear armed conflict with one another. In addition, Jervis notes two other major developments: (1) unchallenged American hegemony or unipolarity and (2) the rise of terrorism and the American response to it. Jervis maintains that the structural conditions for American hegemony were "produced by the size and vitality of the American economy, the lack of political unity within Europe, and the collapse of the Soviet Union," (Jervis; 2005: 58). Therefore, in many ways America has been acting like a normal state that has gained a position of dominance (Jervis; 2005: 92). However, Jervis argues extensively in Chapter Two that 9/11 has triggered assertive American hegemony. He qualifies this statement by emphasizing that due to structural factors, aggressive US hegemony was "an accident waiting to happen," (Jervis; 2005: 92). In addition, Jervis stresses the significance of critical decisions made by the current administration in response to the terrorist attacks. He notes that "it took both September 11 and the particular outlook of the Bush administration to put the United States on its current path," (Jervis; 2005: 58). Together, these three phenomena (the SC, American hegemony, and 9/11) have had a major impact on world politics and deterrence. Indeed, Jervis believes that "we are headed for a difficult world, one that is not likely to fit any of our ideologies or simple theories," (Jervis; 2005: 138). Nowhere is the impact more evident than the war in Iraq, which Jervis d