Poli Sci 2531 W4

International Relations W4 ● Conservative Approaches to Foreign Policy ● Outline ○ The Neoconservative approach ■ Neoconservatives are the defense hawks found with anglo-american conservatives parties ■ Favour strong military and muscular foreign policy ■ Most influential during bush administration: Promoted Iraq Invasion ■ Traced back to republicans advocating rollback rather than containment of communism ● President Eisenhower ● Eisenhower's sec of state John foster dulles ● Conservative prof James Burnham ■ Neoconservatism emerged more formally with conservative author irving kristol in the 70s and 80s ■ Foreign policy should promote US and western values ■ Believes US/western values of democracy and capitalism are better ■ Need for moral clarity and taking sides rather than neutrality ● Support traditional western allies including israel ● Oppose dictators and rivals ● Good vs evil view of the world ■ Capitalism is good but not perfect ■ Morality and security must trump capitalism when necessary ■ Support trade that benefits US and allies ■ Constructive engagement with authoritarians doesn't work ■ US should be the sole superpower as is a benign hegemon ■ Strong belief in the power of the military to create change ■ Supports interventionism, rollback, and regime change ■ Supports law and order policies domestically ■ Belief in American exceptionalism ■ US as global cop shouldn’t be subject to same rules ■ UN/ICC/multilateralism hurts sovereignty and moral clarity ■ Interventions should be unilateral or coalitions of the willing ■ Elitist not populist ■ Religious and social conservative but not fundamentalist ■ Civic nationalism and patriotism not ethnic or xenophobic nationalism ■ Supports immigration ■ Many never-Trumpers (not keen on trump) are neocons ■ Height of influence was in Bush jr, administration and promotion of the iraq war ■ Many members of neocon think tank, Project for a new american

century, held key positions in the bush admin ■ Used 9/11 to promote iraq invasions ■ Neocon influence led to the bush doctrine ● American primacy ● Democracy promotion through force ● Regime change to containment ● Pre emptive use of force ● Unilateralism not multilateralism ■ Continues to advocate for muscular foreign policy ■ Prevent nuclear proliferation to enemies ■ Regime change in Iran to support Israel ■ Tough stance on China North Korea and Russia ■ Think of Policy Priorities ● Security and Foreign Policies are their main priorities ○ The populist/paleo conservative approach ■ Represents white working class from rural small town and rust belt america ■ View trade and immigration as threats to jobs and cultural identity ■ Economic and cultural nationalism is the foreign policy of populism ■ Traced back to US isolationism and protectionism after WW1 and Great Depression ● Smoot-Hawley tariffs helped to end globalization ● Isolationist america first committee kept US out of WWII for first 2 years ● US did not join league of nations ● Immigration quotas ■ Patrick Buchanan’s 1992 anti-trade, anti-immigration, anti- establishment, ‘American first’ run for Republican nomination ■ Ross perot’s anti-nafta third party campaign ■ Trump represented ascendancy of populist conservatism ■ Supported by breitbart news founder steve bannon ■ Anti-elite, nationalist policies that benefit white working class ■ ■ Anti-elites: ■ Wall street elites rig economy ■ Secular urban elites (hollywood/media) impose liberal social values ■ Elites are ‘globalists’ more loyal to their class than US ■ Trade being bad for workers ■ Blue collar jobs get exported overseas

■ History unfolds through different dispensations (eras) to culminate in the ‘end-times’ ■ Jerusalem is key to end-time prophecy ● Explains evangelicals’ strong support for israel ● Support for Israel reinforces opposition to the UN, Iran, etc. ■ Opposition to UN also reinforced by evangelical popular culture ■ Many books and films on end-times associate globalism and the UN with the Antichrist