Cox & Stokes: US Foreign Policy 
Monthly commentaries
Essay questionsCox & Stokes: US Foreign Policy
Reflections on the George W. Bush era
With President-elect Barack Obama formally taking up residence in Pennsylvania Avenue in January 2009, now is an apposite time to reflect on George W. Bush's time in the White House. A mixture of indifference and ignominy marked Bush's swansong visit to Iraq and Afghanistan in December 2008. At home media attention has increasingly focused on Obama and his incoming administration, whilst President Bush's final tour of the Middle East was most notable for the 'shoe throwing' incident in which an Iraqi reporter threw his shoes at the President during a news conference.
In general, then, the closing of the Bush era has been somewhat subdued. George W. Bush leaves the White House with low levels of domestic approval amidst an ever-deepening financial crisis and leaves the US still heavily involved in two unpopular wars (Afghanistan and Iraq) instigated under his tenure. Against this context, Bush has himself sought to defend his legacy. Whilst admitting 'regret' that the US failed to find the weapons of mass destruction allegedly possessed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Bush nevertheless maintained in media interviews that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was justified. He also defended his record on national security on the basis that the US has not suffered a major terrorist attack on its soil since 9/11. Similarly, Bush's vice-president Dick Cheney has unapologetically defended the administration's record in spite of its low approval ratings in the polls, and specifically reiterated his backing of the use of executive power in the War on Terror.
For the Bush administration's detractors – by now much more numerous than its defenders, even among those in the Republican Party – the charge sheet on President Bush's failings is a lengthy one. Iraq, Afghanistan, the abuses at Abu Ghraib and those alleged at Guantanamo bay, and the failure to capture Osama Bin Laden are routinely pointed to by critics when reviewing the Bush era, as is the current financial crisis. In addition, many critics argue that the abrasive unilateralism of the Bush presidency, particularly during its first four years, has left a legacy of broken and diminished alliances from which the US has yet to fully recover.
As is often the case when a President leaves office, attention will now turn to how 'history' will judge the George W. Bush era. Some, such as Bush's Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, have argued that the current negative view of the Bush era will eventually give way to a more sanguine reading in the longer term. Drawing comparisons with President Harry Truman, who left office in 1953 with low popularity ratings but was later credited by many with a necessary overhauling of the US national security infrastructure, Rice declared of Bush that 'generations pretty soon are going to start to thank this president for what he's done. This generation will.'
Rice's opinion is unlikely to find few adherents in the current climate. But leaving aside the question of whether future generations will actually 'thank' President Bush for his actions, students of US foreign policy would do well to recall the major events and policy changes that occurred under Bush's leadership and which will likely have lasting implications beyond his time in office. Chief among these is of course the attacks of 9/11 and the subsequent policy response initiated by the Bush administration in the War on Terror and the 'Bush Doctrine'. The direction of the incoming administration will undoubtedly be compared and contrasted against these measures. Some went so far as to credit President Bush with instigating a 'revolution' in US foreign policy by unashamedly promoting US military predominance and unilateralism and, in particular, espousing the policy of 'pre-emption' used in the justification of the invasion of Iraq. Whether or not these measures will be judged as 'achievements' will be a subjective question; but certainly their significance in terms of the way US foreign policy has been conducted in the recent past and even how it will be conducted in the immediate future is a question that observers of US foreign policy will need to pay continued attention to, even as the Bush era fades rather quietly away.
Think Points:
What have been the major successes and failings of the George W. Bush era in terms of US foreign relations?
Assess the main strengths and weaknesses of George W. Bush's style of leadership.
To what extent did the Bush era witness an extension of executive power in the conduct of US foreign policy?
To what extent should the Bush administration be credited with instigating a 'revolution' in US foreign policy?
What will be the lasting legacy of the Bush era in terms of US foreign policy?
View print version