Contemporary geopolitics Flashcards
What was the key focus of George Bush’s presidency (1989-1993)
Bush focused on foreign policy, this was the time in which germany reunified, the Soviet Union collapsed and the end of the cold war
Bush therefore focused on improving the relationship with the Russia, meeting the leader Mikhail Gorbachev. US-Russia relations improved then they signed the Strategic Arms reduction treaty
Bush’s interference in Panama
Bush was against General Noriega’s dictatorship in Panama
What is meant by “New World Order”
The phrase “new world order” has been widely used on the political scene about Bush’s policies.
This new world order was a world where the US, in alliance with those willing to follow, did the ordering. Any change in the status quo geopolitical order unfavorable to the US and the “western” interests, such as the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, was considered an unlawful aggression and would have consequence
Explain the main ideas of The End of History by Fukuyama
The neoliberalists, capitalist West was the vanguard of civilization. Fukuyama considered the US was the consummation of history, and the fulfillment of human historical destiny. All other states are struggling to attain what the west has achieved. The US has reached the “end of history”
This conceptual division between the “west” and the “rest”, where the west had reached post-historical, whilst the rest is still in the historical
What was the Gulf War?
It was a war in which the west fought to guarantee Western Access to cheap oil and restore antidemocratic but pro-western monarchy.
The Gulf war was the perfect opportunity to re-legitimate itself and re-define the fluid post-Cold War world as one where the “rogue” states (Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria) menaced the security of the west
Walter Russell Mead: the return of geopolitics
Old fashioned power plays are back in international relations - russia invading Ukraine, China’s aggressive coastal claims, Iran’s relation to Syria and Hezbollah
China, Iran and Russia are all pushing back against the political settlement of the Cold War
Huntington’s Clash of Civilisation
Neoconservatives saw multiculturalism as threatening to “de-Westernization”, they seek to defend the traditional values. The post-cold war period is seen as cultural war between different civilizational groups
Huntington wrote of a clash of civilizations which ultimately pitted the west against the rest, this cultural clash will dominate the world politics
The two interpretations after the Cold War
The optimistic: Fukuyama
Pessimistic: Huntington
Sharp power:
ideological model that privileges state power over individual liberty and it is hostile to free expression, open debate and independent though
Such as China and Russia
Luttwak about power
The economy will replace the military power
George W. Bush’s first presidential term (2001-2005)
Dominated by 9/11, the US invaded Afghanistan to overthrow Taliban who was suspected of harboring Osama bin Laden
George W. Bush’s second presidential term (2005-2009)
Strong public approval in his first, but it fell during his second term after it was discovered that he had used misleading claims about Iraq’s WMD to invade.
Troubled economy, the two wars were costly and the there were broad tax cuts leading annual budget deficits. In 2008, the US went through a financial crisis
Explain Bush (2nd)’s neoconservative framework
The Bush Doctrine great from neoconservative dissatisfaction with Clinton’s handling of the Iraqi regime of Hussein. The US’s neoconservatives were not happy with the US’s depose of Hussein
