1st Edition

Understanding the Bush Doctrine Psychology and Strategy in an Age of Terrorism

Edited By Stanley A. Renshon, Peter Suedfeld Copyright 2007
    356 Pages 13 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    356 Pages 13 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    In this volume, leading scholars of U.S. foreign policy, international relations, and political psychology examine one of the most consequential and controversial statements of national security policy in contemporary American history. Unlike other books which focus only on unilateralism or preventive war, Stanley A. Renshon and Peter Suedfeld provide a comprehensive framework with which to analyze the Bush Doctrine by identifying five central and interrelated elements of the doctrine:

    • American pre-eminence
    • assertive realism
    • equivocal alliances
    • selective multilateralism
    • democratic transformation.

    Given its centrality to American national security, and the fact that the effects of it are likely to be felt well into the twenty-first century, Understanding the Bush Doctrine provides a critically balanced and pointed assessment of the Bush Doctrine and its premises, as well as a fair appraisal of its implications and prospects.

    I. Introduction
    1. The Bush Doctrine: Psychological Foundations, Real World Consequences, Stanely Renshon and Peter Suefeld
    II. The Post 9/11 World
    2. Public Opinion in a Dangerous World, Doug Foyle
    3. The New Psychology of Alliances, Peter Suedfeld
    III. Offensive Realism
    4. International Relations Theory Meets World Politics: The Neoconservative vs. Realism Debate, Gerhard Alexander
    5. The Psychological Origins of Preventive War, Jonathan B. Renshon
    6. The Fate of Deterrence in the Post 9/11 World, Richard Ned Lebow
    7. Deterrin Rouge Leaders, Jerrold Post
    IV. Risky Choices: The Bush Doctrine in Practice
    8. War, Post 9/11: Preventive Logic, the 2003 Iraq War, and the Bush Doctrine, Jack Levy

    9. Iraq: A Historical Analogy in the Making, Phil Tetlock

    10. Democracy and the Bush Doctrine, Marvin Zonis
    V. Conclusion: The Bush Doctrine in Perspective
    11. The Bush Doctrine in Perspective, Alexander Moens
    12. Anti-Americanism, National Identity and the Bush Doctrine, Janice Stein
    13. Premature Obituary: The Future of the Bush Doctrine, Stanley A. Renshon

    Biography

    Stanley A. Renshon is a professor of political science at the City University of New York. He is also coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Program in the Psychology of Social and Political Behavior at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He is the author or editor of twelve books. He is currently working on a full length book on the Bush Doctrine.

    Peter Suedfeld is Dean Emeritus of Graduate Studies and Professor Emeritus of Psychology at The University of British Columbia.