In Defense of the Bush Doctrine

In Defense of the Bush Doctrine, by Robert G. Kaufman, The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, 2007. Started: March 8, 2006 Finished: March 10, 2008, Revised: March 13, 2008 Robert G. Kaufman's "In Defense of the Bush Doctrine" is an extremely well written book that should be read and kept nearby the desks of all policy makers in the United States because it gives an in-depth critique of the many ways of dealing with international relations throughout the history of the United States and the world, shows how they have developed, how they have worked, and most importantly what is most important to maintaining the security of the United States today. It is for these reasons that it should also be a mainstay of every college syllabus dealing with American foreign policy, how you arrive at a coherent policy that works in the interest of the United States and how you maintain these policies internally and externally to achieve security of the United States. The "Bush Doctrine", also officially titled by its less politically charged name, The National Security Strategy of the United States of America, September 2002 [NSS 9/02], is the current synthesis of the way that the United States can maintain our security at home while making the world a safer and better place abroad. It is the United States first attempt to formalize how the United States should deal with the proven fact that America is under attack by non nation entities who wish to use "weapons of mass destruction" against us and our allies as demonstrated by the events of September 11, 2001. "In Defense of the Bush Doctrine [NSS 9/02] is a challenge to the detractors of our proactive foreign policy at home to rejuvenate a new consensus that will be shared across both parties in Congress, to force academia to come up with a policy that suggests more than emotion, hope and faith to achieve America's goals as opposed the reality and hard work set forth in NSS 9/02, and to pass this challenge on to other countries who benefit from our efforts, even those who do not help us in doing the heavy lifting. Critics should analyze their proposed courses of action to see if their plans will forestall the failures by the Kaufman critique of their anticipated modus operandi, a rigorous standard to meet. Thucydides prescient analysis of the causes of war, "fear, honor, and interest" is constants that stand the test of time and are with us today. The maxims of Donald M. Kagan's "On the Origins of War" that postulate that most wars, maybe not all, can be prevented or limited, by having the power to be Clear, Capable, and Credible still works, and although designed to operate in the national state system, it can and should be applied to states that harbor terrorists and to the terrorists themselves. These are the cornerstones of NSS 9/02 and for Kaufman's "moral democratic realism'. Moral democratic realism offers a more compelling framework for American grand strategy than the alterna

I am most of the way through this book and have been impressed by its clear, readily understood prose and its straight-to-the-point sentences explaining the various foreign policies that the U.S. has embraced and the proofs of their failure or success with the reasons why. Naming and explaining one by one the foreign policy schools of thought and their proponents, as the author does in the first part of the book, was helpful in placing the current Bush doctrine in an historic context. The author then describes the Bush policy as, on the one hand, vigorous encouragement of the growth of stable, liberal democracies -- because stable, liberal democracies historically do not fight each other -- and, on the other hand, vigorous opposition to totalitarian regimes that deny freedom to their oppressed populations -- because oppressive regimes historically have defiantly ignored negotiated agreements of peace. Ironic that this book is available just as the tide of our miltary success in Iraq and public opinion at home and abroad is seen to be turning. Short and important, this book should be on everyone's coffee table.

enough facts and analysis to give the reader a platform for understanding current events, and more important, an insight into the intillectual requirements for developing policy

This book makes a lot of sense from many different vantage points. Al- Queda has been attacking us for three decades (see kobahr towers, uss cole, 1st attack on the world trade center) President Clinton did nothing about the attacks during his administration. President Bush has the balls and the know-how to fight the enemy in order to prevent future attacks at home.

Kaufman's book is a courageous, forceful argument for a long-term troop commitment to the Middle East. Required reading for sunshine patriots.