After Bush: The Case for Continuity in American Foreign Policy

Towards the end of his second term, it appears George W. Bush’s foreign policy has won few admirers, with pundits and politicians eagerly and opportunistically bashing the tenets of the Bush Doctrine. This provocative account dares to counter the dogma of Bush’s Beltway detractors and his ideological enemies, boldly arguing that Bush’s policy deservedly belongs within the mainstream of the American foreign policy tradition. Though the shifting tide of public opinion has led many to anticipate that his successor will repudiate the actions of the past eight years, authors Timothy Lynch and Robert S. Singh suggest that there will―and should―be continuity in US foreign policy from his Presidency to those who follow. Providing a positive audit of the war on terror (which they contend should be understood as a Second Cold War) they charge that the Bush Doctrine has been consistent with past foreign policies―from Republican and Democratic presidencies―and that the key elements of Bush’s grand strategy will rightly continue to shape America’s approach in the future. Above all, they predict that his successors will pursue the war against Islamist terror with similar dedication.

Timothy J. Lynch (BA, UEA; MA, London; PhD, Boston College) is Senior Lecturer in US Foreign Policy at the Institute for the Study of the Americas, School of Advanced Study, University of London. He is the author of Turf War: The Clinton Administration and Northern Ireland and, with Robert Singh, After Bush: The Case for Continuity in American Foreign Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2008).

Robert S. Singh is Professor of Politics in the School of Politics and Sociology at Birkbeck College, University of London.