Establishing the neoconservative footprint

Abstract

This thesis evaluates efforts by neoconservatives during the George W. Bush administration to re-orient and perpetuate their foreign policy principles away from the status quo realist stance dominant during the Cold War. It will examine the main principles of neoconservatives, namely the promotion of democracy through the exertion of American power, and demonstrate how these principles have changed America's foreign policy. This thesis argues that neoconservatives have advocated a forward leaning foreign policy stance by drawing on themes linked to American exceptionalism and democracy promotion. Neoconservatives further perpetuate their arguments by connecting their message to American nationalism and through access to media outlets to voice their positions on issues. Overall, many of the neoconservative policies enacted in the first term of the Bush Administration continue, albeit through different means in the Obama Administration.