Neo-conservatism after Iraq Fukuyama vs Kristol. (c2010)

Abstract

In 1998 prominent neoconservattves in the US. drafted a letter to President Bil! Clinton demanding U.S. action to end tyranny in Iraq. Military action was advocated as a mean to eliminate Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, remove Iraq's President Saddam Hussein from power, and initiate a democratic domino effect throughout the Middle Eastern reglOn. Following the manifestatIOn of the neoconservatives' iraqi agenda by President George W. Bush's administration and the conclusion of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, neoconservative ideologues split around the lessons earned. One group was persistent in its stand that the US decision to launch a preemptive and unilateral war represented an opportunity to promote global democracy and 1J.S. supremacy The second group held the position that unilateralism and coercive regime change would implicate US foreign policy decision with global isolationism. This thesis examines the positions of both camps through the views held by two prominent neoconservatives: William Kristol and Francis Fukuyama The thesis reveals the theoretical repositioning of the US neoconservatives that followed the 2003 Iraq invasion with prospect of their reorientation toward a U S. foreign policy rapprochement in Iran.