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{{Short description|Political movement}} | |||
{{About|neoconservatism in the United States|neoconservatism in other regions|Neoconservatism (disambiguation)}} | |||
{{redirect-distinguish|Neocon|Norethisterone{{!}}Necon|Paleoconservatism}} | |||
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{{about|the political movement in the United States|other regions|Conservatism|and|Neoconservatism (disambiguation)|the furnishing trade fair known as NeoCon|Merchandise Mart#Trade fairs}} | |||
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'''Neoconservatism''' (colloquially '''neocon''') is a ] which began in the ] during the 1960s among ]s who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist ] along with the growing ] and ]. Neoconservatives typically advocate the ] promotion of ] and ] in ] together with a ] and ] philosophy of "]". They are known for espousing ] to ] and ].<ref name="britannica">{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/neoconservatism|title=Neoconservatism|last=Dagger|first=Richard|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=16 May 2016|archive-date=31 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200531190807/https://www.britannica.com/topic/neoconservatism|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="merriam-webster">{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/neoconservative|title=Neoconservative|website=Merriam-Webster Dictionary|access-date=11 November 2012|archive-date=25 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925214021/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/neoconservative|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Many adherents of neoconservatism became politically influential during ] presidential administrations from the 1960s to the 2000s, peaking in influence during the ], when they played a major role in promoting and planning the ]. Prominent neoconservatives in the Bush administration included ], ], ], ], and ]. | |||
{{conservatism US}} | |||
Although U.S. Vice President ] and Secretary of Defense ] had not self-identified as neoconservatives, they worked closely alongside neoconservative officials in designing key aspects of the ]; especially in their support for ], promotion of American influence in the ] and launching the ].<ref>{{cite book |author=Record, Jeffrey |title=Wanting War: Why the Bush Administration Invaded Iraq |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7hOlgQUq7FYC&pg=PT47 |year=2010 |publisher=Potomac Books, Inc. |pages=47–50 |access-date=12 June 2016 |isbn=978-1-59797-590-2 |archive-date=23 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123161642/https://books.google.com/books?id=7hOlgQUq7FYC&pg=PT47 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Bush administration's domestic and foreign policies were heavily influenced by major ideologues affiliated with neoconservatism, such as ], ], ] and ], ], and ].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Abrams |first=Nathan |title=Norman Podhoretz and Commentary Magazine: The Rise and Fall of the Neocons |publisher=The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4411-0968-2 |location=New York |page=1 |chapter=Introduction |quote=}}</ref> | |||
Critics of neoconservatism have used the term to describe foreign policy and ]s who support aggressive militarism or ]. Historically speaking, the term ''neoconservative'' refers to Americans who moved from the ] to ] during the 1960s and 1970s.<ref name="Vaïsse">{{cite book| author=Vaïsse, Justin|title=Neoconservatism: The biography of a movement|publisher=Harvard University Press|date= 2010|pages= 6–11}}</ref> The movement had its intellectual roots in the magazine '']'', edited by ].<ref>{{cite news|author=Balint, Benjamin|title=Running Commentary: The Contentious Magazine that Transformed the Jewish Left Into the Neoconservative Right|work=PublicAffairs|date= 2010}}</ref> They spoke out against the New Left, and in that way helped define the movement.<ref>{{cite news|author= Beckerman, Gal|title=The Neoconservatism Persuasion|work=The Forward|date= 6 January 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last= Friedman|first= Murray|title= The Neoconservative Revolution Jewish Intellectuals and the Shaping of Public Policy|year= 2005|publisher= Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, UK}}</ref> | |||
==Terminology== | == Terminology == | ||
] was called "godfather" of neoconservatism]] | <!-- ] violation: ], who was called the "godfather" of neoconservatism]] --> | ||
The term |
The term ''neoconservative'' was popularized in the United States during 1973 by the socialist leader ], who used the term to define ], ], and ], whose ideologies differed from Harrington's.<ref name="harrington">{{Cite journal|first=Michael |last=Harrington |title=The Welfare State and Its Neoconservative Critics |journal=] |date=Fall 1973 |volume=20}} | ||
*Cited in: {{Cite book |title=The Other American: the life of Michael Harrington |first=Maurice |last=Isserman |location=New York |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=978-1-891620-30-0 |year=2000 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/otheramericanlif0000isse |access-date=17 December 2019}} | |||
*Reprinted as chapter 11 in Harrington's 1976 book ''The Twilight of Capitalism'', pp. 165–272.</ref> Earlier during 1973, he had described some of the same ideas in a brief contribution to a symposium on welfare sponsored by ''Commentary''.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Edward C. Banfield |author2=Nathan Glazer |author3=Michael Harrington |author4=Tom Kahn |author5=Christopher Lasch |url=http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/Nixon-the-Great-Society-and-the-Future-of-Social-PolicyA-Symposium-5214 |title=Nixon, the Great Society, and the Future of Social Policy—A Symposium |magazine=Commentary |date=May 1973 |page=39}}</ref> | |||
The |
The ''neoconservative'' label was adopted by Irving Kristol in his 1979 article "Confessions of a True, Self-Confessed 'Neoconservative{{'"}}.<ref name="goldberg">{{Cite journal|first=Jonah |last=Goldberg |url=http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/206955/neoconservative-invention/jonah-goldberg |title=The Neoconservative Invention |journal=] |date=20 May 2003 |access-date=2 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114100459/http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/206955/neoconservative-invention/jonah-goldberg |archive-date=14 November 2012 }}</ref> His ideas have been influential since the 1950s, when he co-founded and edited the magazine '']''.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Irving |last=Kristol |author-link=Irving Kristol |title=Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea |publisher=Ivan R. Dee |year=1999 |isbn=978-1-56663-228-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/neoconservatisma00kris }}</ref> | ||
{{Cite book|first=Irving |last=Kristol |authorlink=Irving Kristol |title=Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea |publisher=Ivan R. Dee |year=1999 |isbn=1-56663-228-5}}</ref> Another source was ], editor of the magazine '']'' from 1960 to 1995. By 1982 Podhoretz was terming himself a neoconservative, in a '']'' article titled "The Neoconservative Anguish over Reagan's Foreign Policy".<ref name="Gerson_PR">{{Cite journal|first=Mark |last=Gerson |url=http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/3564402.html |title=Norman's Conquest, |journal=] |date=Fall 1995 |accessdate=31 March 2008 |ref=harv}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20810FB3D5C0C718CDDAC0894DA484D81 |first=Norman |last=Podhoretz |title=The Neoconservative Anguish over Reagan's Foreign Policy |work=] |date=1982-05-02 |accessdate=30 March 2008}}</ref> During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the neoconservatives considered that ] had failed and "no longer knew what it was talking about," according to ].<ref name="Dionne">{{Cite book|first=E.J. |last=Dionne |year=1991 |authorlink=E. J. Dionne |title=Why Americans Hate Politics |location=New York |publisher=Simon & Schuster |pages=55–61 |isbn=0-671-68255-5}}</ref> | |||
Another source was ], editor of the magazine '']'', from 1960 to 1995. By 1982, Podhoretz was terming himself a neoconservative in '']'' article titled "The Neoconservative Anguish over Reagan's Foreign Policy".<ref name="Gerson_PR">{{Cite journal|first=Mark |last=Gerson |url=http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/3564402.html |title=Norman's Conquest |journal=] |date=Fall 1995 |access-date=31 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080320065640/http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/3564402.html |archive-date=20 March 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20810FB3D5C0C718CDDAC0894DA484D81 |first=Norman |last=Podhoretz |title=The Neoconservative Anguish over Reagan's Foreign Policy |work=] |date=2 May 1982 |access-date=30 March 2008 |archive-date=9 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081209034447/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20810FB3D5C0C718CDDAC0894DA484D81 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
The term "neoconservative", which was used originally by a ] to criticize the politics of ],<ref name="Lipset39"> | |||
{{harvtxt|Lipset|1988|p=39}} | |||
</ref> has since 1980 been used as a criticism against proponents of ] who had become slightly more conservative.<ref name="goldberg">{{Cite journal|first=Jonah |last=Goldberg |url=http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/206955/neoconservative-invention/jonah-goldberg|title=The Neoconservative Invention |journal=] |date=2003-05-20 |accessdate=2 March 2014|ref=harv}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Kinsley |first=Michael |authorlink=Michael Kinsley |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57779-2005Apr15.html |title=The Neocons' Unabashed Reversal |work=] |date=2005-04-17 |page=B07 |accessdate=30 March 2008}} <!--quote not used here: |quote=When people say that the selection of ]... marks the triumph of neocons... they are generally not indicating pleasure. Cynics say they are indicating ]: A neocon is a Jewish intellectual you disagree with. --></ref> | |||
The term itself was the product of a rejection among formerly self-identified liberals of what they considered a growing leftward turn of the Democratic Party in the 1970s. Neoconservatives perceived in the new ] an ideological effort to distance the Democratic Party and American liberalism from ]ism as it was espoused by former Presidents such as ], ] and ]. After the Vietnam War, the anti-communist, internationalist and interventionist roots of this Cold War liberalism seemed increasingly brittle to the neoconservatives. As a consequence they migrated to the Republican Party and formed one pillar of the Reagan Coalition and of the conservative movement. Hence, they became Neo-conservatives.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kagan |first1=Robert |title=Neocon Nation: Neoconservatism, c. 1776 |journal=World Affairs Journal |date=29 May 2008 |volume=170 |issue=4 |pages=13–35 |doi=10.3200/WAFS.170.4.13-35 |url=https://carnegieendowment.org/2008/05/29/neocon-nation-neoconservatism-c.-1776-pub-20196 |access-date=30 July 2023}}</ref> | |||
The term "neoconservative" was the subject of increased media coverage during the presidency of ],<ref>Marshall, J.M. . From ''Foreign Affairs,'' November/December 2003. Retrieved 1 December 2008.</ref><ref name="Fukuyama">Fukuyama, F. (February 19, 2006). . ''New York Times Magazine.'' Retrieved 1 December 2008.</ref> with particular emphasis on a perceived neoconservative influence on American foreign policy, as part of the ].<ref>''see'' "]".</ref> | |||
==History== | == History == | ||
], inspiration for neoconservative foreign policy during the 1970s |
], an inspiration for neoconservative foreign policy during the 1970s]] | ||
Through the 1950s and early 1960s, the future neoconservatives had endorsed the ], ], and ]<ref>{{Cite journal |url=http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9605/opinion/thistime.html |first=James |last=Nuechterlein |title=The End of Neoconservatism |journal=] |volume=63 |date=May 1996 |pages=14–15 |access-date=31 March 2008 |quote=Neoconservatives differed with traditional conservatives on a number of issues, of which the three most important, in my view, were the ], ], and the nature of the ] threat ... On civil rights, all neocons were enthusiastic supporters of ] and the ] and ]." |archive-date=6 September 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120906214342/http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9605/opinion/thistime.html |url-status=live }}</ref> From the 1950s to the 1960s, liberals generally endorsed military action in order to prevent a communist victory in ] during the ].<ref>Robert R. Tomes, ''Apocalypse Then: American Intellectuals and the Vietnam War, 1954–1975'' (2000), p. 112.</ref> | |||
Neoconservatism was initiated by liberals' repudiation of the ] and by the "]" of the American ], which ] said was too sympathetic to the ] and too alienated from the majority of the population, and by the repudiation of "anti-]" by liberals, which included substantial endorsement of ] politics by the New Left during the late 1960s. Some neoconservatives were particularly alarmed by what they believed were the ] sentiments of Black Power advocates.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cm6UEJCGNJsC&q=running+commentary,+book |title=Benjamin Balint, ''Running Commentary: The Contentious Magazine That Transformed the Jewish Left Into the Neoconservative Right'' (2010), pp. 100–18 |date=1 June 2010 |access-date=12 June 2016 |isbn=978-1-58648-860-4 |last1=Balint |first1=Benjamin |publisher=PublicAffairs |archive-date=23 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123161644/https://books.google.com/books?id=Cm6UEJCGNJsC&q=running+commentary,+book |url-status=live }}</ref> Irving Kristol edited the journal '']'' (1965–2005), featuring economists and political scientists, which emphasized ways that government planning in the liberal state had produced unintended harmful consequences.<ref>Irving Kristol, "Forty good years", ''Public Interest'', Spring 2005, Issue 159, pp. 5–11 is Kristol's retrospective in the final issue.</ref> Some early neoconservative political figures were disillusioned Democratic politicians and intellectuals, such as ], who served in the ] and ] administrations, and ], who served as ] in the ] administration. Some left-wing academics such as ] and ] eventually became associated with the conservative movement at this time.<ref name="auto">{{Cite book|date=15 July 2020|editor-last=Gottfried|editor-first=Paul|title=The Vanishing Tradition|doi=10.7591/cornell/9781501749858.001.0001|isbn=978-1-5017-4985-8|s2cid=242603258}}</ref> | |||
Through the 1950s and early 1960s, the future neoconservatives had endorsed the ], ], and ].<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9605/opinion/thistime.html |first=James |last=Nuechterlein |title=The End of Neoconservatism |journal=] |volume=63 |date=May 1996 |pages=14–15 |accessdate=31 March 2008 |quote=Neoconservatives differed with traditional conservatives on a number of issues, of which the three most important, in my view, were the New Deal, civil rights, and the nature of the Communist threat... On civil rights, all neocons were enthusiastic supporters of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the ] of 1964 and 1965."|ref=harv}}</ref> From the 1950s to the 1960s, there was general endorsement among liberals for military action to prevent a communist victory in Vietnam.<ref>Robert R. Tomes, ''Apocalypse Then: American Intellectuals and the Vietnam War, 1954-1975'' (2000) p. 112.</ref> | |||
A substantial number of neoconservatives were originally moderate socialists who were originally associated with the moderate wing of the Socialist Party of America (SP) and its successor party, the ] (SDUSA). ], a former Trotskyist theorist who developed strong feelings of antipathy towards the ], had numerous devotees in the SDUSA with strong links to ]'s AFL-CIO. Following Shachtman and Meany, this faction led the SP to oppose immediate withdrawal from the Vietnam War and oppose George McGovern in the Democratic primary race and, to some extent, the general election. They also chose to cease their own party-building and concentrated on working within the Democratic Party, eventually influencing it through the ].<ref>Justin Vaïsse, Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement (Harvard University Press, 2010), pp. 214–19</ref> Thus the Socialist Party dissolved in 1972, and the SDUSA emerged that year. (Most of the left-wing of the party, led by Michael Harrington, immediately abandoned the SDUSA.)<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=uru7tdlv3FgC&q=shachtman,+realignment&pg=PT84 |author= Martin Duberman |title= A Saving Remnant: The Radical Lives of Barbara Deming and David McReynolds |publisher= The New Press |date= 2013 |access-date= 12 June 2016 |isbn= 978-1-59558-697-1 |archive-date= 23 January 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230123161644/https://books.google.com/books?id=uru7tdlv3FgC&q=shachtman,+realignment&pg=PT84 |url-status= live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Ym-qm7i5WHYC&q=shachtman,+sdusa&pg=PA300 |author= Maurice Isserman |title= The Other American: The Life of Michael Harrington |date= 2001 |page= 300 of 290–304 |publisher= PublicAffairs |orig-date= 8 December 1972 |access-date= 12 June 2016 |isbn= 978-0-7867-5280-5 |archive-date= 23 January 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230123161645/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ym-qm7i5WHYC&q=shachtman,+sdusa&pg=PA300 |url-status= live }}</ref> SDUSA leaders associated with neoconservatism include ], ], ] and ].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z3b7syYOqskC&q=bayard |title=Justin Vaïsse, Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement (Harvard University Press, 2010), pp. 71–75 |access-date=12 June 2016 |isbn=978-0-674-05051-8 |last1=Vaïsse |first1=Justin |year=2010 |publisher=Harvard University Press |archive-date=23 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123161651/https://books.google.com/books?id=z3b7syYOqskC&q=bayard |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Jack Ross, The Socialist Party of America: A Complete History (University of Nebraska Press, 2015), the entire Chapter 17 entitled " {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123161645/https://books.google.com/books?id=fud1BwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=jack+ross,+socialist&hl=en&sa=X&ei=E-tdVcnUFc61sQTR2IPoCQ&ved=0CCAQuwUwAA#v=onepage&q=social%20democrats%20usa&f=false |date=23 January 2023 }}"</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Matthews |first=Dylan |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/28/meet-the-gay-socialist-pacifist-who-planned-the-1963-march-on-washington/ |title=Dylan Matthews, "Meet Bayard Rustin" Washingtonpost.com, 28 August 2013 |work=Washingtonpost.com |date=28 August 2013 |access-date=12 June 2016 |archive-date=10 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610130030/http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/28/meet-the-gay-socialist-pacifist-who-planned-the-1963-march-on-washington/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://neoconservatism.vaisse.net/doku.php?id=start#tablethe_three_ages_of_neoconservatism |title="Table: The three ages of neoconservatism" Neoconservatism: Biography of Movement by Justin Vaisse-official website |publisher=Neoconservatism.vaisse.net |access-date=12 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320161743/http://neoconservatism.vaisse.net/doku.php?id=start#tablethe_three_ages_of_neoconservatism |archive-date=20 March 2016 }}</ref> | |||
Neoconservatism was initiated by the repudiation of ] by the American ]: ], which denounced coalition-politics and ] as "selling out" and "]ism" and which frequently generated ] slogans; "anti-]", which seemed indifferent to the fate of ], and which during the late 1960s included substantial endorsement of ] politics; and the "]" of the ], which considered students and alienated minorities as the main agents of social change (replacing the majority of the population and labor activists, who nevertheless established close personal links with anti-Imperialist guerrillas and revolutionary organizations throughout the colonized world).<ref>Benjamin Balint, ''Running Commentary: The Contentious Magazine That Transformed the Jewish Left Into the Neoconservative Right'' (2010).</ref> ] edited the journal '']'' (1965–2005), featuring economists and political scientists, which emphasized ways that government planning in the liberal state had produced unintended harmful consequences.<ref>Irving Kristol, "Forty good years," ''Public Interest,'' Spring 2005, Issue 159, pp. 5-11 is Kristol's retrospective in the final issue.</ref> Interestingly enough, many early Neoconservative political figures were disillusioned Democratic politicians and intellectuals, such as ], who served in the Nixon Administration, and ], who served as President ]'s UN Ambassador. | |||
Norman Podhoretz's magazine '']'' |
Norman Podhoretz's magazine '']'', originally a journal of liberalism, became a major publication for neoconservatives during the 1970s. ''Commentary'' published an article by Jeane Kirkpatrick, an early and prototypical neoconservative. {{clear}} | ||
{{clear}} | |||
=== Rejecting the American New Left and McGovern's New Politics === | |||
===Jeane Kirkpatrick=== | |||
As the policies of the ] made the ] increasingly leftist, these neoconservative intellectuals became disillusioned with President ]'s ] domestic programs. The influential 1970 bestseller '']'' by ] expressed that the "real majority" of the electorate endorsed ] but also ] and that it could be disastrous for Democrats to adopt ] positions on certain social and crime issues.<ref name="mason">{{Cite book|title=Richard Nixon and the Quest for a New Majority|author=Mason, Robert|year=2004|publisher=]|isbn=978-0-8078-2905-9|pages=81–88|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nlag8VcyEd4C|access-date=12 June 2016|archive-date=23 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123161648/https://books.google.com/books?id=Nlag8VcyEd4C|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
{{Main|Jeane Kirkpatrick}} | |||
]</center>]] | |||
The neoconservatives rejected the ] ] and what they considered ] in the ] of the activism against the ]. After the anti-war faction took control of the party during 1972 and nominated ], the Democrats among the neoconservatives endorsed Washington Senator ] for his unsuccessful 1972 and 1976 campaigns for president. Among those who worked for Jackson were the incipient neoconservatives ], ], and ].<ref>Justin Vaïsse, ''Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement'' (2010) ch 3.</ref> During the late 1970s, neoconservatives tended to endorse ], the Republican who promised to confront Soviet expansionism. Neoconservatives organized in the ] and ] to counter the liberal establishment.<ref>Arin, Kubilay Yado: ''Think Tanks, the Brain Trusts of US Foreign Policy''. Wiesbaden: VS Springer 2013.</ref> Author Keith Preston named the successful effort on behalf of neoconservatives such as ] and Irving Kristol to cancel Reagan's 1980 nomination of ], a Southern ] academic whose regionalist focus and writings about ] and ] alienated the more ] and progress-oriented neoconservatives, to the leadership of the ] in favor of longtime Democrat ] as emblematic of the neoconservative movement establishing hegemony over mainstream American conservatism.<ref name="auto"/> | |||
A theory of neoconservative foreign policy during the final years of the Cold War was articulated by ], in "],"<ref>Jeane Kirkpatrick, J (November 1979). "," ''Commentary Magazine'' Volume 68'', No. 5.</ref> published in '']'' during November 1979. Kirkpatrick criticized the foreign policy of ], which endorsed ] with the USSR. She later served the Reagan Administration as Ambassador to the United Nations.<ref>Noah, T. (Dec. 8, 200). . ''Slate Magazine''. Retrieved 8 July 2012.</ref> | |||
{{clear}}<!-- For floated picture above vs. blockquote below. --> | |||
====Skepticism towards democracy promotion==== | |||
In another (2004) article, ] also wrote:<ref name="lind">{{Cite news |url=http://www.thenation.com/article/tragedy-errors |work=] |title=A Tragedy of Errors |first=Michael |last=Lind |date=23 February 2004 |access-date=30 March 2008 |archive-date=14 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191214134248/https://www.thenation.com/article/tragedy-errors/ |url-status=live }}</ref> {{blockquote|Neoconservatism ... originated in the 1970s as a movement of anti-Soviet liberals and social democrats in the tradition of Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Humphrey and Henry ('Scoop') Jackson, many of whom preferred to call themselves 'paleoliberals.' ... many 'paleoliberals' drifted back to the Democratic center ... Today's neocons are a shrunken remnant of the original broad neocon coalition. Nevertheless, the origins of their ideology on the left are still apparent. The fact that most of the younger neocons were never on the left is irrelevant; they are the intellectual (and, in the case of William Kristol and John Podhoretz, the literal) heirs of older ex-leftists.}} | |||
In "Dictatorships and Double Standards," Kirkpatrick distinguished between ] regimes and the ] regimes such as the Soviet Union; she suggested that in some countries democracy was not tenable and the U.S. had a choice between endorsing authoritarian governments, which might evolve into democracies, or ] regimes, which she argued had never been ended once they achieved totalitarian control. In such tragic circumstances, she argued that allying with authoritarian governments might be prudent. Kirkpatrick argued that by demanding rapid ] in traditionally ] countries, the Carter administration had delivered those countries to Marxist-Leninists that were even more repressive. She further accused the Carter administration of a "double standard," of never having applied its rhetoric on the necessity of liberalization to ]. The essay compares traditional autocracies and Communist regimes: | |||
=== Leo Strauss and his students<!-- Straussian Wilsonianism, Straussian idealism and Straussian Idealism redirect here. --> === | |||
{{quote| do not disturb the habitual rhythms of work and leisure, habitual places of residence, habitual patterns of family and personal relations. Because the miseries of traditional life are familiar, they are bearable to ordinary people who, growing up in the society, learn to cope ...}} | |||
], a professor at Clemson University, claims that most influential neoconservatives refer explicitly to the theoretical ideas in the philosophy of ] (1899–1973),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cato-unbound.org/2011/03/07/c-bradley-thompson/neoconservatism-unmasked |title=Neoconservatism Unmasked |date=7 March 2011 |access-date=6 November 2013 |archive-date=6 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211006055910/https://www.cato-unbound.org/2011/03/07/c-bradley-thompson/neoconservatism-unmasked |url-status=live }}</ref> although there are several writers who claim that in doing so they may draw upon meaning that Strauss himself ]. Eugene Sheppard notes: "Much scholarship tends to understand Strauss as an inspirational founder of American neoconservatism".<ref>Eugene R. Sheppard, ''Leo Strauss and the politics of exile: the making of a political philosopher'' (2005), p. 1.</ref> Strauss was a refugee from Nazi Germany who taught at the ] in New York (1938–1948) and the ] (1949–1969).<ref>Allan Bloom, "Leo Strauss: September 20, 1899 – October 18, 1973", ''Political Theory'', November 1974, Vol. 2 Issue 4, pp. 372–92, an obituary and appreciation by one of his prominent students.</ref> | |||
Strauss asserted that "the crisis of the West consists in the West's having become uncertain of its purpose". His solution was a restoration of the vital ideas and faith that in the past had sustained the moral purpose of the West. The ] (] and ]), ] and the ] are the essentials of the Great Tradition in Strauss's work.<ref>John P. East, "Leo Strauss and American Conservatism", {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111171310/http://www.mmisi.org/ma/21_01/east.pdf |date=11 January 2012 }}.</ref><ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200627205541/https://www.aei.org/*/leo-strausss-perspective-on-modern-politics/ |date=27 June 2020 }} – ]</ref> Strauss emphasized the spirit of the Greek classics and Thomas G. West (1991) argues that for Strauss the ] were correct in their understanding of the classics in their principles of justice.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=West|first=Thomas G.|date=1991|title=Leo Strauss and the American Founding|journal=The Review of Politics|volume=53|issue=1|pages=157–172|doi=10.1017/s0034670500050257|s2cid=144097678|issn=0034-6705}}</ref> | |||
{{quote| claim jurisdiction over the whole life of the society and make demands for change that so violate internalized values and habits that inhabitants flee by the tens of thousands ...}} | |||
For Strauss, political community is defined by convictions about justice and happiness rather than by sovereignty and force. A classical liberal, he repudiated the philosophy of ] as a bridge to 20th-century historicism and nihilism and instead defended ] as closer to the spirit of the classics than other modern regimes.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Kenneth L. Deutsch|author2=John Albert Murley|title=Leo Strauss, the Straussians, and the American Regime|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0AUpAMhf8OAC&pg=PA63|year=1999|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|page=63|access-date=12 June 2016|isbn=978-0-8476-8692-6|archive-date=23 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123161656/https://books.google.com/books?id=0AUpAMhf8OAC&pg=PA63|url-status=live}}</ref> For Strauss, the American awareness of ineradicable evil in human nature and hence the need for morality, was a beneficial outgrowth of the pre-modern Western tradition.<ref>Thomas G. West, "Leo Strauss and the American Founding", ''Review of Politics'', Winter 1991, Vol. 53 Issue 1, pp. 157–72.</ref> O'Neill (2009) notes that Strauss wrote little about American topics, but his students wrote a great deal and that Strauss's influence caused his students to reject ] and ] as ] positions.<ref name=ZZ4>], ], ''The Truth about Leo Strauss: Political Philosophy and American Democracy'', University of Chicago Press, 2008, p. 4ff.</ref> They instead promoted a so-called Aristotelian perspective on America that produced a qualified defense of its liberal constitutionalism.<ref>Johnathan O'Neill, "Straussian constitutional history and the Straussian political project", ''Rethinking History'', December 2009, Vol. 13 Issue 4, pp. 459–78.</ref> Strauss's emphasis on ] led the Straussians to develop an approach to ] that Catherine and Michael Zuckert (2008) call '''Straussian ]'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> (or '''Straussian ]'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->), the defense of liberal democracy in the face of its vulnerability.<ref name=ZZ4/><ref>], ''The Neo-conservative Persuasion: Selected Essays, 1942-2009'', Basic Books, 2011, p. 217.</ref> | |||
Kirkpatrick concluded that while the United States should encourage liberalization and democracy in autocratic countries, it should not do so when the government risks violent overthrow, and should expect gradual change rather than immediate transformation.<ref name="nprkirkpatrick">{{cite news |title=Jeane Kirkpatrick and the Cold War (audio) |publisher=NPR |date=2006-12-08 |url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6599937 |accessdate=16 August 2007}}</ref> She wrote: “No idea holds greater sway in the mind of educated Americans than the belief that it is possible to ] governments, anytime and anywhere, under any circumstances... Decades, if not centuries, are normally required for people to acquire the necessary disciplines and habits. In Britain, the road ]. ... The speed with which armies collapse, bureaucracies abdicate, and social structures dissolve once the autocrat is removed frequently surprises American policymakers."<ref name="econkirkpatrick">{{cite news |title=Jeane Kirkpatrick |work=The Economist|date=2006-12-19 |url=http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8447241|accessdate=16 August 2007}}</ref> | |||
{{anchor|Poland}} | |||
;Poland | |||
Before 1982, neoconservatives were skeptical about ] and criticized the prudence of the Carter administrations policies on ]. Kirkpatrick and ] before 1982 argued that communism could not be overthrown and that the Polish labor-union ] was doomed. Podhoretz and Kirkpatrick were originally skeptical about the AFL-CIO's endorsement of Solidarity and about the use of U.S. economic aid to promote liberalization and democratization in Poland.<ref>* {{harvtxt|Chenoweth|1992|11-15}}: {{cite journal|title=The gallant warrior: In memoriam Tom Kahn|first=Eric|last=Chenoweth|journal=Uncaptive minds: A journal of information and opinion on Eastern Europe|publisher=Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe (IDEE)|location=1718 M Street, NW, No. 147, Washington DC 20036, USA|issn=0897-9669|volume=5|issue=20, number 2|date=Summer 1992|pages=5–16|url=http://www.democracyforcuba.org/images/stories/media/UM2/vol.5no.2a.pdf|format=pdf|ref=harv|<!-- authorlink=Eric Chenoweth -->}} | |||
* {{harvtxt|Domber|2008|pp=9, 35, 54–55, 79, 93, 95, 180, 446}}: {{cite book|title=Supporting the revolution: America, democracy, and the end of the Cold War in Poland, 1981–1989|first=Gregory F.|last=Domber<!-- http://www.unf.edu/coas/history/Faculty.aspx -->|publisher=]|year=2008|isbn=0-549-38516-9|id=|pages=1–506|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Grtub61ScTgC&q=neo-conservative+OR+neo-conservatism#v=snippet&q=neo-conservative%20OR%20neo-conservatism&f=false|type=Ph.D. dissertation (12 September 2007), ]|ref=harv}} | |||
* {{harvtxt|Horowitz|2007|pp=236–237}}: {{Cite journal|title=Tom Kahn and the fight for democracy: A political portrait and personal recollection|first=Rachelle|last=Horowitz|authorlink=Rachelle Horowitz|url=http://www.dissentmagazine.org/democratiya/article_pdfs/d11Horowitz.pdf|ref=harv|journal=] ''(merged with'' ] ''in 2009)''|issue=Summer|volume=11|year=2007|origyear=|pages=204–251}} | |||
* {{Cite journal|title=How to support ''Solidarnosc'': A debate|others=sponsored by the ] and the ], with introduction by ] and moderation by ], and held at the Polish Institute for Arts and Sciences, New York City in March 1981|last1=Kahn|first1=Tom|authorlink1=Tom Kahn|last2=Podhoretz|first2=Norman|authorlink2=Norman Podhoretz|journal=] ''(merged with'' ] ''in 2009)''|volume=13|issue=Summer|year=2008|pages=230–261|url=http://www.dissentmagazine.org/democratiya/docs/d13Whole.pdf|ref=harv}} | |||
* {{cite journal|first=Arch|last=Puddington|title=A hero of the cold war|journal=The American Spectator|volume=25|date=July 1992|url=http://search.opinionarchives.com/Summary/AmericanSpectator/V25I7P42-1.htm|ref=harv|pages=42–44|id=Payment required|edition=The Nation's Pulse|issue=7}} | |||
</ref><ref> | |||
* {{cite journal|last=Kahn|first=Tom|authorlink=Tom Kahn|title=Moral duty|date=3 March 1982|journal=]|publisher=] (purchased by Springer Verlag)|location=New York|issn=0147-2011|page=51|volume=19|doi=10.1007/BF02698967|ref=harv|issue=3}} | |||
* {{citation<!-- allows "others=" unlike cite journal-->|title=Beyond the double standard: A social democratic view of the authoritarianism versus totalitarianism debate|first=Tom|last=Kahn|<!-- authorlink=Tom Kahn -->|journal=New America|publisher=]|date=July 1985 |url=http://www.dissentmagazine.org/democratiya/docs/d12Kahn.pdf|format=pdf|others=January 1985 speech to the ‘Democratic Solidarity Conference’ organized by the Young Social Democrats (YSD) under the auspices of the Foundation for Democratic Education|ref=harv}} | |||
*: Reprinted: {{cite journal|title=Beyond the double standard: A social democratic view of the authoritarianism versus totalitarianism debate|last=Kahn|first=Tom|journal=] ''(merged into'' ] ''in 2009)''|volume=12|issue=Spring|year=2008|origyear=1985|pages=152–160|url=http://www.dissentmagazine.org/democratiya/docs/d12Kahn.pdf|format=pdf|ref=harv|<!-- authorlink=Tom Kahn -->}} | |||
</ref> | |||
Strauss influenced ''The Weekly Standard'' editor ], ], ], ] and ], as well as ].<ref>Barry F. Seidman and Neil J. Murphy, eds. ''Toward a new political humanism'' (2004), p. 197.</ref><ref>Sheppard, ''Leo Strauss and the politics of exile: the making of a political philosopher'' (2005), pp. 1–2.</ref> | |||
===New York Intellectuals=== | |||
Many neoconservatives had been leftist during the 1930s and 1940s, when they opposed Stalinism. After World War II, they continued to oppose Stalinism and to endorse democracy during the ]. Of these, many were from the Jewish<ref>: "...that it's easy to forget that most grew up on the edge of American society-- poor, Jewish, the children of immigrants. Prodigal Sons retraces their common past..."</ref> intellectual milieu of ].<ref>Alexander Bloom, ''Prodigal sons: the New York intellectuals and their world'' (1986) p. 372.</ref> | |||
=== Jeane Kirkpatrick === | |||
===Rejecting the American New Left and McGovern's New Politics=== | |||
{{main|Jeane Kirkpatrick}} | |||
As the policies of the ] made the ] increasingly leftist, these intellectuals became disillusioned with President ]'s ] domestic programs. The influential 1970 bestseller '']'' by ] expressed that the "real majority" of the electorate endorsed ] but also ], and warned Democrats it could be disastrous to adopt ] positions on certain social and crime issues.<ref name="mason">{{Cite book|title=Richard Nixon and the Quest for a New Majority|author=Mason, Robert|year=2004|publisher=]|isbn=0-8078-2905-6|pages=81–88|url=http://books.google.com/?id=Nlag8VcyEd4C}}</ref> | |||
]]] | |||
A theory of neoconservative foreign policy during the final years of the Cold War was articulated by ] in "]",<ref>Jeane Kirkpatrick, J (November 1979). {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110204172141/http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/dictatorships--double-standards-6189 |date=4 February 2011 }}, ''Commentary Magazine'' 68, No. 5.</ref> published in '']'' during November 1979. Kirkpatrick criticized the foreign policy of ], which endorsed ] with the Soviet Union. She later served the Reagan Administration as Ambassador to the United Nations.<ref>Noah, T. (8 December 2006). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925182713/http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/chatterbox/2006/12/jeane_kirkpatrick_realist.html |date=25 September 2018 }}. ''Slate Magazine''. Retrieved 8 July 2012.</ref> | |||
==== Skepticism towards democracy promotion ==== | |||
The neoconservatives rejected the ] ], and what they considered ] in the ] of the activism against the ]. After the anti-war faction took control of the party during 1972 and nominated ], the Democrats among them endorsed Washington Senator ] instead for his unsuccessful 1972 and 1976 campaigns for president. Among those who worked for Jackson were future neoconservatives ], ], and ].<ref>Justin Vaïsse, ''Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement'' (2010) ch 3.</ref> During the late 1970s, neoconservatives tended to endorse ], the Republican who promised to confront Soviet expansionism. Neocons organized in the ] and the ] to counter the liberal establishment.<ref>Arin, Kubilay Yado: ''Think Tanks, the Brain Trusts of US Foreign Policy''. Wiesbaden: VS Springer 2013.</ref> | |||
In "Dictatorships and Double Standards", Kirkpatrick distinguished between ] regimes and the ] regimes such as the Soviet Union. She suggested that in some countries democracy was not tenable and the United States had a choice between endorsing authoritarian governments, which might evolve into democracies, or ] regimes, which she argued had never been ended once they achieved totalitarian control. In such tragic circumstances, she argued that allying with authoritarian governments might be prudent. Kirkpatrick argued that by demanding rapid ] in traditionally ] countries, the Carter administration had delivered those countries to Marxist–Leninists that were even more repressive. She further accused the Carter administration of a "double standard" and of never having applied its rhetoric on the necessity of liberalization to ]. The essay compares traditional autocracies and Communist regimes: {{blockquote| do not disturb the habitual rhythms of work and leisure, habitual places of residence, habitual patterns of family and personal relations. Because the miseries of traditional life are familiar, they are bearable to ordinary people who, growing up in the society, learn to cope.}} | |||
{{blockquote| claim jurisdiction over the whole life of the society and make demands for change that so violate internalized values and habits that inhabitants flee by the tens of thousands.}} | |||
Kirkpatrick concluded that while the United States should encourage liberalization and democracy in autocratic countries, it should not do so when the government risks violent overthrow and should expect gradual change rather than immediate transformation.<ref name="nprkirkpatrick">{{cite news |title=Jeane Kirkpatrick and the Cold War (audio) |publisher=NPR |date=8 December 2006 |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6599937 |access-date=16 August 2007 |archive-date=6 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190406213955/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6599937 |url-status=live }}</ref> She wrote: "No idea holds greater sway in the mind of educated Americans than the belief that it is possible to democratize governments, anytime and anywhere, under any circumstances ... Decades, if not centuries, are normally required for people to acquire the necessary disciplines and habits. In Britain, the road took seven centuries to traverse. ... The speed with which armies collapse, bureaucracies abdicate, and social structures dissolve once the autocrat is removed frequently surprises American policymakers".<ref name="econkirkpatrick">{{cite news|title=Jeane Kirkpatrick|newspaper=The Economist|date=19 December 2006|url=http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8447241|access-date=16 August 2007|archive-date=20 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071120044855/http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8447241|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
{{Clear}} <!-- for floated picture above vs. blockquote below --> | |||
{{anchor|Poland}} | |||
In another (2004) article, ] also wrote | |||
<ref name="lind">{{Cite news|url=http://www.thenation.com/article/tragedy-errors |work=] |title=A Tragedy of Errors |first=Michael |last=Lind |date=2004-02-23 |accessdate=30 March 2008}}</ref> | |||
{{quote|Neoconservatism... originated in the 1970s as a movement of anti-Soviet liberals and social democrats in the tradition of Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Humphrey and Henry ('Scoop') Jackson, many of whom preferred to call themselves 'paleoliberals.' ... many 'paleoliberals' drifted back to the Democratic center... Today's neocons are a shrunken remnant of the original broad neocon coalition. Nevertheless, the origins of their ideology on the left are still apparent. The fact that most of the younger neocons were never on the left is irrelevant; they are the intellectual (and, in the case of William Kristol and John Podhoretz, the literal) heirs of older ex-leftists.}} | |||
=== |
=== 1990s === | ||
During the 1990s, neoconservatives were once again opposed to the foreign policy establishment, both during the Republican Administration of President ] and that of his Democratic successor, President ]. Many critics charged that the neoconservatives lost their influence as a result of the end of the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite news |first=Martin |last=Jaques |title=America faces a future of managing imperial decline |date=16 November 2006 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/story/0,,1948806,00.html |work=] |location=London |access-date=31 January 2008 |archive-date=8 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200608073333/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/story/0,,1948806,00.html/ |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
Neoconservatism draws on several intellectual traditions. The students of political science Professor ] (1899–1973) comprised one major group. Eugene Sheppard notes that, "Much scholarship tends to understand Strauss as an inspirational founder of American neoconservatism."<ref>Eugene R. Sheppard, ''Leo Strauss and the politics of exile: the making of a political philosopher'' (2005) p. 1.</ref> Strauss was a refugee from Nazi Germany who taught at the New School for Social Research in New York (1939–49) and the University of Chicago (1949–1958).<ref>Allan Bloom, "Leo Strauss: September 20, 1899-October 18, 1973," ''Political Theory,'' November 1974, Vol. 2 Issue 4, pp. 372-392, an obituary and appreciation by one of his prominent students.</ref> | |||
After the decision of George H. W. Bush to leave ] in power after the first ] during 1991, many neoconservatives considered this policy and the decision not to endorse indigenous dissident groups such as the ] and ] in their ] to Hussein as a betrayal of democratic principles.<ref name="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174894">{{cite web|last=Schwarz|first=Jonathan|title=The Lost Kristol Tapes: What the New York Times Bought|url=http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174894|work=Tom Dispatch|access-date=14 September 2013|date=14 February 2008|archive-date=10 January 2013|archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20130110220943/http%3A//www.tomdispatch.com/post/174894|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Tucker2009>{{cite book|title=U.S. Leadership in Wartime: Clashes, Controversy, and Compromise, Volume 1|year=2009|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara, CA|isbn=978-1-59884-173-2|page=947|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wEkFzIWjdn4C&pg=PA947|editor1=Tucker, Spencer|editor2=Pierpaoli, Paul G.|access-date=14 September 2013|archive-date=23 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123161647/https://books.google.com/books?id=wEkFzIWjdn4C&pg=PA947|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Hirsh2004>{{cite journal|last=Hirsh |first=Michael |title=Bernard Lewis Revisited:What if Islam isn't an obstacle to democracy in the Middle East but the secret to achieving it? |journal=Washington Monthly |date=November 2004 |url=http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0411.hirsh.html |access-date=14 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140108162236/http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0411.hirsh.html |archive-date=8 January 2014 }}</ref><ref name=Wing2012>{{cite web|last=Wing|first=Joel|title=What Role Did Neoconservatives Play In American Political Thought And The Invasion Of Iraq?|url=http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/2012/04/what-role-did-neoconservatives-play-in.html|work=Musings on Iraq|access-date=14 September 2013|date=17 April 2012|archive-date=8 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140108221742/http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/2012/04/what-role-did-neoconservatives-play-in.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Podhoretz2006>{{cite news|last=Podhoretz|first=Norman|title=Is the Bush Doctrine Dead?|url=http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/is-the-bush-doctrine-dead|access-date=14 September 2013|newspaper=Commentary|date=September 2006|archive-date=28 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130728033536/http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/is-the-bush-doctrine-dead/|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Strauss asserted that "the crisis of the West consists in the West's having become uncertain of its purpose." His solution was a restoration of the vital ideas and faith that in the past had sustained the moral purpose of the West.{{Dubious|date=November 2013}} Classical Greek political philosophy and the Judeo-Christian heritage are the essentials of the Great Tradition in Strauss's work.<ref>John P. East, "Leo Strauss and American Conservatism," .</ref> Strauss emphasized the spirit of the Greek classics, and West (1991) argues that for Strauss the American "Founding Fathers" were correct in their understanding of the classics in their principles of justice. For Strauss, political community is defined by convictions about justice and happiness rather than by sovereignty and force. He repudiated the philosophy of ] as a bridge to 20th-century historicism and nihilism, and defended liberal democracy as closer to the spirit of the classics than other modern regimes.{{citation needed|date=January 2012}} For Strauss, the American awareness of ineradicable evil in human nature, and hence the need for morality, was a beneficial outgrowth of the premodern Western tradition.<ref>Thomas G. West, "Leo Strauss and the American Founding," ''Review of Politics,'' Winter 1991, Vol. 53 Issue 1, pp. 157-172.</ref> O'Neill (2009) notes that Strauss wrote little about American topics but his students wrote a great deal, and that Strauss's influence caused his students to reject historicism and positivism. Instead they promoted a so-called Aristotelian perspective on America that produced a qualified defense of its liberal constitutionalism.<ref>Johnathan O'Neill, "Straussian constitutional history and the Straussian political project," ''Rethinking History,'' December 2009, Vol. 13 Issue 4, pp. 459-478.</ref> Strauss influenced ''Weekly Standard'' editor ], editor ], and military strategist ].<ref>Barry F. Seidman and Neil J. Murphy, eds. ''Toward a new political humanism'' (2004) p. 197.</ref><ref>Sheppard, ''Leo Strauss and the politics of exile: the making of a political philosopher'' (2005) pp. 1-2.</ref> | |||
Some of those same targets of criticism would later become fierce advocates of neoconservative policies. During 1992, referring to the first ], then ] and future ] ] said: {{blockquote|I would guess if we had gone in there, I would still have forces in Baghdad today. We'd be running the country. We would not have been able to get everybody out and bring everybody home. | |||
===1990s=== | |||
During the 1990s, neoconservatives were once again opposed to the foreign policy establishment, both during the Republican Administration of President ] and that of his Democratic successor, President ]. Many critics charged that the neoconservatives lost their influence as a result of the end of the USSR.<ref>{{Cite news|first=Martin |last=Jaques |title=America faces a future of managing imperial decline |date=2006-11-16 |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1948806,00.html |work=] |location=London |accessdate=31 January 2008}}</ref> | |||
And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not that damned many. So, I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq.<ref>{{Cite news|first= Charles|last= Pope|title= Cheney changed his view on Iraq|url= http://www.seattlepi.com/national/192908_cheney29.html|publisher= Seattle Post Intelligencer|date= 29 September 2008|access-date= 25 October 2008|archive-date= 16 November 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20211116153124/http://www.seattlepi.com/national/192908_cheney29.html|url-status= live}}</ref>}} | |||
After the decision of George H. W. Bush to leave ] in power after the first ] during 1991, many neoconservatives considered this policy, and the decision not to endorse indigenous dissident groups such as the ] and ] in their ] to Hussein, as a betrayal of democratic principles.<ref name=http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174894>{{cite web|last=Schwarz|first=Jonathan|title=The Lost Kristol Tapes: What the New York Times Bought|url=http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174894|work=Tom Dispatch|accessdate=14 September 2013|date=February 14, 2008}}</ref><ref name=Tucker2009>{{cite book|title=U.S. Leadership in Wartime: Clashes, Controversy, and Compromise, Volume 1|year=2009|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara, CA|isbn=978-1-59884-173-2|page=947|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=wEkFzIWjdn4C&pg=PA947&lpg=PA947|editor=Tucker, Spencer; Pierpaoli, Paul G.|accessdate=14 September 2013}}</ref><ref name=Hirsh2004>{{cite journal|last=Hirsh|first=Michael|title=Bernard Lewis Revisited:What if Islam isn't an obstacle to democracy in the Middle East but the secret to achieving it?|journal=Washington Monthly|date=November 2004|url=http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0411.hirsh.html|accessdate=14 September 2013|ref=harv}}</ref><ref name=Wing2012>{{cite web|last=Wing|first=Joel|title=What Role Did Neoconservatives Play In American Political Thought And The Invasion Of Iraq?|url=http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/2012/04/what-role-did-neoconservatives-play-in.html|work=Musings on Iraq|accessdate=14 September 2013|date=April 17, 2012}}</ref><ref name=Podhoretz2006>{{cite news|last=Podhoretz|first=Norman|title=Is the Bush Doctrine Dead?|url=http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/is-the-bush-doctrine-dead|accessdate=14 September 2013|newspaper=Commentary|date=September 2006}}</ref> | |||
A key neoconservative policy-forming document, '']'' (commonly known as the "Clean Break" report) was published in 1996 by a study group of American-Jewish neoconservative strategists led by ] on the behest of newly-elected Israeli Prime Minister ]. The report called for a new, more aggressive Middle East policy on the part of the United States in defense of the interests of Israel, including the removal of ] from power in ] and the containment of ] through a series of ]s, the outright rejection of any solution to the ] that would include a ], and an alliance between Israel, ] and ] against Iraq, Syria and ]. Former ] and leading neoconservative ] was the "Study Group Leader", but the final report included ideas from fellow neoconservatives, pro-Israel right-wingers and affiliates of Netanyahu's ] party, such as ], James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks Jr., Jonathan Torop, ], ], and IASPS president Robert Loewenberg.<ref>" {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140125123844/http://www.iasps.org/strat1.htm |date=January 25, 2014 }}" text states, "The main substantive ideas in this paper emerge from a discussion in which prominent opinion makers, including Richard Perle, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks, Jr., Douglas Feith, Robert Loewenberg, David Wurmser, and Meyrav Wurmser participated."</ref> | |||
Ironically, some of those same targets of criticism would later become fierce advocates of neoconservative policies. During 1992, referring to the first ], then ] and future ] ] said: | |||
{{quote|I would guess if we had gone in there, I would still have forces in Baghdad today. We'd be running the country. We would not have been able to get everybody out and bring everybody home.... | |||
Within a few years of the Gulf War in ], many neoconservatives were endorsing the ousting of Saddam Hussein. On 19 February 1998, an open letter to President Clinton was published, signed by dozens of pundits, many identified with neoconservatism and later related groups such as the ], urging decisive action to remove Saddam from power.<ref>], et al. " {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040404193525/http://www.iraqwatch.org/perspectives/rumsfeld-openletter.htm |date=4 April 2004 }}", 19 February 1998, online at IraqWatch.org. Retrieved 16 September 2006.</ref> | |||
And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not that damned many. So, I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq.<ref>{{Cite news|first= Charles|last= Pope|authorlink= |title= Cheney changed his view on Iraq|url= http://www.seattlepi.com/national/192908_cheney29.html|work= |publisher= Seattle Post Intelligencer|date= 2008-09-29 |accessdate=25 October 2008}}</ref>}} | |||
Neoconservatives were also members of the so-called "]", which argued for a confrontational policy toward the ] (the communist government of mainland China) and for strong military and diplomatic endorsement of the ] (also known as Taiwan), as they ]. | |||
Within a few years of the Gulf War in ], many neoconservatives were endorsing the ouster of Saddam Hussein. On February 19, 1998, an open letter to President Clinton was published, signed by dozens of pundits, many identified with neoconservatism and, later, related groups such as the ], urging decisive action to remove Saddam from power.<ref>], et al. "", February 19, 1998, online at IraqWatch.org. Retrieved September 16, 2006.</ref> | |||
=== 2000s === | |||
Neoconservatives were also members of the so-called "]", which argued for a confrontational policy toward the ] and strong military and diplomatic endorsement for the ] (also known as Formosa or Taiwan). | |||
==== Administration of George W. Bush ==== | |||
The Bush campaign and the early Bush administration did not exhibit strong endorsement of neoconservative principles. As a presidential candidate, Bush had argued for a restrained foreign policy, stating his opposition to the idea of ].<ref>{{Cite news|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222053148/http://www.thebostonchannel.com/helenthomas/2117601/detail.html|url=http://www.thebostonchannel.com/helenthomas/2117601/detail.html |title=Bush Begins Nation Building |publisher=WCVB TV |archive-date=22 February 2012|date=16 April 2003}}</ref> Also early in the administration, some neoconservatives criticized Bush's administration as insufficiently supportive of ] and suggested Bush's foreign policies were not substantially different from those of President Clinton.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/06/27/wbush27.xml |title=Bush accused of adopting Clinton policy on Israel |work=] |date=26 June 2001 |access-date=30 March 2008 | location=London | first1=Toby | last1=Harnden | first2=Alan | last2=Philps}} {{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> | |||
] ] (here with the former ] ] at ] in 2002) wrote in his memoir '']'' that Mubarak endorsed the administration's position that ] had WMDs before the war with the country, but kept it private for fear of "inciting the ]"<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111222051652/http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/11/12/arabs_leaders_and_arab_street |date=22 December 2011 }}, Mohammad Sagha. Foreign Policy. 12 November 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2011</ref>]] | |||
During the late 1990s, Irving Kristol and other writers in neoconservative magazines began touting anti-Darwinist views, as an endorsement of ]. Since these neoconservatives were largely of secular origin, a few commentators have speculated that this{{spaced ndash}}along with endorsement of religion generally – may have been a case of a "]", intended to protect public morality, or even ], to attract religious endorsers.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.reason.com/news/show/30329.html |journal=] |title=Origin of the Specious |first=Ronald |last=Bailey |date=July 1997 |accessdate=31 March 2008 |ref=harv}}</ref> | |||
Bush's policies changed dramatically immediately after the ]. | |||
During Bush's State of the Union speech of January 2002, he named Iraq, Iran and North Korea as states that "constitute an ]" and "pose a grave and growing danger". Bush suggested the possibility of ]: "I will not wait on events, while dangers gather. I will not stand by, as peril draws closer and closer. The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons".<ref>" {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090502151928/http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020129-11.html |date=2 May 2009 }}". White House press release, 29 January 2002.</ref><ref>"". '']'', 19 January 2003</ref> | |||
===2000s=== | |||
Some major defense and national-security persons have been quite critical of what they believed was a neoconservative influence in getting the United States to go to war against Iraq.<ref>], "Writing History in the 'End of History' Era – Reflections on Historians and the GWOT", '' Journal of Military History'', October 2006, Vol. 70 Issue 4, pp. 1065–79.</ref> | |||
====Administration of George W. Bush==== | |||
{{Wikinews|Vanity Fair editor Craig Unger on the Bush family feud, neoconservatives and the Christian right}} | |||
The Bush campaign and the early Bush administration did not exhibit strong endorsement of neoconservative principles. As a presidential candidate, Bush had argued for a restrained foreign policy, stating his opposition to the idea of '']''<ref>{{Cite news|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20120222053148/http://www.thebostonchannel.com/helenthomas/2117601/detail.html|url=http://www.thebostonchannel.com/helenthomas/2117601/detail.html |title=Bush Begins Nation Building |publisher=WCVB TV |archivedate=2012-02-22|date=2003-04-16}}</ref> and an early foreign policy confrontation with China was managed without the vociferousness suggested by some neoconservatives.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/4/6/194726.shtml |title=China Plane Incident Sparks Re-election Drives of Security-minded Senators |first=Wes |last=Vernon |work=Newsmax |date=2001-04-07 |accessdate=30 March 2008}}</ref> Also early in the administration, some neoconservatives criticized Bush's administration as insufficiently supportive of ], and suggested Bush's foreign policies were not substantially different from those of President Clinton.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/06/27/wbush27.xml |title=Bush accused of adopting Clinton policy on Israel |work=] |date=2001-06-26 |accessdate=30 March 2008 | location=London | first1=Toby | last1=Harnden | first2=Alan | last2=Philps}}</ref> | |||
Former Nebraska Republican U.S. senator and Secretary of Defense, ], who has been critical of the Bush administration's adoption of neoconservative ideology, in his book ''America: Our Next Chapter'' wrote: {{blockquote|So why did we invade Iraq? I believe it was the triumph of the so-called neo-conservative ideology, as well as Bush administration arrogance and incompetence that took America into this war of choice. ... They obviously made a convincing case to a president with very limited national security and foreign policy experience, who keenly felt the burden of leading the nation in the wake of the deadliest terrorist attack ever on American soil.}} | |||
] ] with the former ] ] at ] in 2002. During November 2010, Bush wrote in his memoir '']'' claiming Mubarak endorsed the administration's position that ] had WMDs before the war with the country, but kept it private for fear of "inciting the ]."<ref>, Mohammad Sagha. Foreign Policy. November 12, 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2011</ref>]] | |||
Bush's policies changed dramatically immediately after the ]. | |||
===== Bush Doctrine ===== | |||
During Bush's State of the Union speech of January 2002, he named Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as states that "constitute an ]" and "pose a grave and growing danger". Bush suggested the possibility of ]: "I will not wait on events, while dangers gather. I will not stand by, as peril draws closer and closer. The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."<ref>"." White House press release, January 29, 2002.</ref><ref>"". ''],'' January 19, 2003</ref> | |||
] | |||
The ] of preemptive war was stated explicitly in the ] (NSC) text "National Security Strategy of the United States". published 20 September 2002: "We must deter and defend against the threat before it is unleashed ... even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy's attack. ... The United States will, if necessary, act preemptively".<ref name="NSC">{{cite web |url=https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/nsc/nss.html |work=] |title=National Security Strategy of the United States |via=] |date=20 September 2002 |access-date=1 March 2021 |archive-date=21 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210321154529/https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/nsc/nss.html |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
The choice not to use the word "preventive" in the 2002 National Security Strategy and instead use the word "preemptive" was largely in anticipation of the widely perceived illegality of preventive attacks in international law via both Charter Law and Customary Law.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.e-ir.info/2009/09/09/international-law-and-the-bush-doctrine/ |title=International Law and the Bush Doctrine |date=9 September 2009 |access-date=6 November 2013 |archive-date=23 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120723064529/http://www.e-ir.info/2009/09/09/international-law-and-the-bush-doctrine/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In this context, disputes over the ] in domestic and foreign policy, especially given the ], alternatively impede and facilitate studies of the impact of ] precepts on neo-conservatism. | |||
Some major defense and national-security persons have been quite critical of what they believed was neoconservative influence in getting the United States to war with Iraq.<ref>Douglas Porch, "Writing History in the "End of History" Era-- Reflections on Historians and the GWOT," '' Journal of Military History,'' October 2006, Vol. 70 Issue 4, pp. 1065-1079.</ref> | |||
Policy analysts noted that the Bush Doctrine as stated in the 2002 NSC document had a strong resemblance to recommendations presented originally in a controversial Defense Planning Guidance draft written during 1992 by ], during the first Bush administration.<ref>" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170822204037/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/iraq/etc/cron.html |date=22 August 2017 }}", in "The war behind closed doors". '']'', ]. 20 February 2003.</ref> | |||
Former Nebraska Republican U.S. senator and incumbent Secretary of Defense, ], who has been critical of the Bush administration's adoption of neoconservative ideology, in his book ''America: Our Next Chapter'' wrote: | |||
{{quote|So why did we invade Iraq? I believe it was the triumph of the so-called neo-conservative ideology, as well as Bush administration arrogance and incompetence that took America into this war of choice. . . . They obviously made a convincing case to a president with very limited national security and foreign policy experience, who keenly felt the burden of leading the nation in the wake of the deadliest terrorist attack ever on American soil.}} | |||
The Bush Doctrine was greeted with accolades by many neoconservatives. When asked whether he agreed with the Bush Doctrine, ] said he did and that "I think exactly right to say we can't sit back and wait for the next terrorist strike on Manhattan. We have to go out and stop the terrorists overseas. We have to play the role of the global policeman. ... But I also argue that we ought to go further".<ref>"" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730160913/https://www.pbs.org/thinktank/transcript1000.html |date=30 July 2020 }}. '']'', ]. 11 July 2002.</ref> Discussing the significance of the Bush Doctrine, neoconservative writer ] claimed: "The world is a mess. And, I think, it's very much to Bush's credit that he's gotten serious about dealing with it. ... The danger is not that we're going to do too much. The danger is that we're going to do too little".<ref>" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200817202633/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/iraq/themes/assess.html |date=17 August 2020 }}", in "The war behind closed doors". '']'', ]. 20 February 2003.</ref> | |||
=====Bush Doctrine===== | |||
] | |||
The '']'' of preemptive war was stated explicitly in the ] text "National Security Strategy of the United States," published September 20, 2002: "We must deter and defend against the threat before it is unleashed ... even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy's attack. ... The United States will, if necessary, act preemptively."<ref name="NSC">{{cite web|url=http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.html |title=National Security Strategy of the United States |publisher=National Security Council |date=2002-09-20}}</ref> | |||
==== 2008 presidential election and aftermath ==== | |||
The choice not to use the word 'preventive' in the 2002 National Security Strategy, and instead use the word 'preemptive' was largely in anticipation of the widely perceived illegality of preventive attacks in international law, via both Charter Law and Customary Law.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.e-ir.info/2009/09/09/international-law-and-the-bush-doctrine/ |title=International Law and the Bush Doctrine |deadurl=no |accessdate=6 November 2013}}</ref> | |||
] and Senator ] at the White House, 5 March 2008, after McCain became the Republican presumptive presidential nominee]] | |||
], who was the Republican candidate for the ], endorsed continuing the second ], "the issue that is most clearly identified with the neoconservatives". ''The New York Times'' reported further that his foreign policy views combined elements of neoconservatism and the main competing conservative opinion, ], also known as realism:<ref name="nyt">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/us/politics/10mccain.html?pagewanted=all|title=2 Camps Trying to Influence McCain on Foreign Policy|first=Elisabeth|last=Bumiller|author2=Larry Rohter|work=]|date=10 April 2008|access-date=16 April 2008|archive-date=26 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126164707/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/us/politics/10mccain.html?pagewanted=all|url-status=live}}</ref> {{blockquote|Among are several prominent neoconservatives, including ] ... Max Boot... | |||
'It may be too strong a term to say a fight is going on over John McCain's soul,' said Lawrence Eagleburger ... who is a member of the pragmatist camp, ... said, "there is no question that a lot of my far right friends have now decided that since you can't beat him, let's persuade him to slide over as best we can on these critical issues.}} | |||
Policy analysts noted that the Bush Doctrine as stated in the 2002 NSC document had a strong resemblance to recommendations presented originally in a controversial Defense Planning Guidance draft written during 1992 by ], during the first Bush administration.<ref>"", in "The war behind closed doors". '']'', ]. February 20, 2003.</ref> | |||
] campaigned for the Democratic nomination during 2008 by attacking his opponents, especially ], for originally endorsing Bush's Iraq-war policies. Obama maintained a selection of prominent military officials from the Bush administration including ] (Bush's Defense Secretary) and ] (Bush's ranking general in Iraq). Neoconservative politician ], former ] under Bush, was made ] by Obama.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thehill.com/video/victoria-nuland-resigns-glenn-greenwald-eviscerates-leading-neocon-interview/9492860/|title=Victoria Nuland resigns, Glenn Greenwald eviscerates leading neocon: Interview|date=6 March 2024|website=The Hill}}</ref> | |||
The Bush Doctrine was greeted with accolades by many neoconservatives. When asked whether he agreed with the Bush Doctrine, ] said he did, and that "I think exactly right to say we can't sit back and wait for the next terrorist strike on Manhattan. We have to go out and stop the terrorists overseas. We have to play the role of the global policeman. ... But I also argue that we ought to go further."<ref>"." '']'', ]. July 11, 2002.</ref> Discussing the significance of the Bush Doctrine, neoconservative writer ] claimed: "The world is a mess. And, I think, it's very much to Bush's credit that he's gotten serious about dealing with it. ... The danger is not that we're going to do too much. The danger is that we're going to do too little."<ref>"", in "The war behind closed doors." '']'', ]. February 20, 2003.</ref> | |||
=== |
=== 2010s and 2020s === | ||
{{Expand section|date= |
{{Expand section|date=December 2024}} | ||
By 2010, U.S. forces had switched from combat to a training role in Iraq and they left in 2011.<ref>Stephen McGlinchey, "Neoconservatism and American Foreign Policy", ''Politikon: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science'', Vol. 16, 1 (October 2010).</ref> The neocons had little influence in the Obama White House,<ref name="abstract">{{cite journal |last1=Homolar-Riechmann |first1=Alexandra |year=2009 |title=The moral purpose of US power: neoconservatism in the age of Obama | journal = Contemporary Politics |volume=15 |issue=2|pages=179–96 |doi=10.1080/13569770902858111|s2cid=154947602 }}</ref><ref name="Robert Singh 2014 pp 29-40">Robert Singh, "Neoconservatism in the age of Obama", in Inderjeet Parmar and Linda B. Miller, eds., ''Obama and the World: New Directions in US Foreign Policy'' (Routledge 2014), pp. 29–40</ref> and neo-conservatives have lost much influence in the Republican party since the rise of the ]. | |||
] | |||
], who was the Republican candidate for the ], endorsed continuing the second ], "the issue that is most clearly identified with the neoconservatives". The ''New York Times'' reported further that his foreign policy views combined elements of neoconservatism and the main competing conservative opinion, ], also known as ''realism'':<ref> | |||
{{Cite news | |||
|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/us/politics/10mccain.html?pagewanted=all | |||
|title=2 Camps Trying to Influence McCain on Foreign Policy | |||
|first=Elisabeth |last=Bumiller |author2=Larry Rohter | |||
|work=] | |||
|date=2008-04-10 |accessdate=16 April 2008 | |||
}} | |||
</ref> | |||
{{quote|Among are several prominent neoconservatives, including Robert Kagan ... Max Boot ... John R. Bolton ... Randy Scheunemann. | |||
Several neoconservatives played a major role in the ] in 2016, in opposition to the Republican presidential candidacy of ], due to his criticism of interventionist foreign policies, as well as their perception of him as an "authoritarian" figure.<ref>{{Cite news|work=]|title=Neocons for Hillary: why some conservatives think Trump threatens democracy itself|date=4 March 2016|url=https://www.vox.com/2016/3/4/11160618/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-neocons|access-date=14 April 2019|archive-date=8 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108142431/http://www.vox.com/2016/3/4/11160618/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-neocons|url-status=live}}</ref> After Trump took office, some neoconservatives joined his administration, such as ], ], ]<ref>{{cite news|work=]|title=Elliott Abrams, prominent D.C. neocon, named special envoy for Venezuela|date=25 January 2019|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/25/elliott-abrams-envoy-venezuela-1128562|access-date=14 April 2019|archive-date=4 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204115156/https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/25/elliott-abrams-envoy-venezuela-1128562|url-status=live}}</ref> and ]. Neoconservatives have supported the Trump administration's hawkish approach towards Iran<ref>{{cite news|work=]|date=17 October 2017|url=https://nationalinterest.org/feature/after-the-neocons-finally-trump-22767|title=Are the Neocons Finally with Trump?|access-date=14 April 2019|archive-date=23 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201223083858/https://nationalinterest.org/feature/after-the-neocons-finally-trump-22767|url-status=live}}</ref> and Venezuela,<ref>{{cite news|work=]|url=https://www.dw.com/cda/en/neocon-led-us-venezuela-policy-rhetoric-trigger-deja-vu-effect/a-47359446|title=Neocon-led US Venezuela policy, rhetoric trigger deja vu effect|date=5 February 2019|access-date=14 April 2019|archive-date=4 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804075318/https://www.dw.com/cda/en/neocon-led-us-venezuela-policy-rhetoric-trigger-deja-vu-effect/a-47359446|url-status=live}}</ref> while opposing the administration's withdrawal of troops from Syria<ref>{{cite news|work=]|title=Trump's decision to withdraw from Syria and build a border wall instead marks a key moment for his 'America first' view|date=19 December 2019|url=https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-syria-withdrawal-20181219-story.html|access-date=14 April 2019|archive-date=19 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201119184043/https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-syria-withdrawal-20181219-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and diplomatic outreach to North Korea.<ref>{{cite news|work=]|title=The North Korea Summit Through the Looking Glass|date=13 June 2018|url=https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/06/singapore-summit-korea-kim-trump-moon|access-date=14 April 2019|archive-date=9 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109025928/https://jacobinmag.com/2018/06/singapore-summit-korea-kim-trump-moon/|url-status=live}}</ref> Although neoconservatives have served in the Trump administration, they have been observed to have been slowly overtaken by the nascent ] and ] movements, and to have struggled to adapt to a changing geopolitical atmosphere.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Elghossain|first=Anthony|date=3 April 2019|title=The Enduring Power of Neoconservatism|magazine=The New Republic|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/153450/enduring-power-neoconservatism|access-date=9 July 2021|issn=0028-6583|archive-date=4 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210704114919/https://newrepublic.com/article/153450/enduring-power-neoconservatism|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|title=Bill Kristol Wanders the Wilderness of Trump World|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/bill-kristol-wanders-the-wilderness-of-trump-world|access-date=9 July 2021|magazine=The New Yorker|date=2 February 2018|language=en-US|archive-date=7 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507025444/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/bill-kristol-wanders-the-wilderness-of-trump-world|url-status=live}}</ref> ], a political action committee consisting of current and former Republicans with the purpose of defeating Trump in the ] and Republican Senate candidates in the ], has been described as being primarily made of neoconservative activists seeking to return the Republican party to Bush-era ideology.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Neoconservative Wolves Dressed in Never-Trumper Clothing|url=https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/neocon-wolves-dressed-in-never-trumper-clothing/|access-date=9 July 2021|website=The American Conservative|date=10 August 2020|language=en-US|archive-date=19 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019152352/https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/neocon-wolves-dressed-in-never-trumper-clothing/|url-status=live}}</ref> Although Trump was not reelected and the Republicans failed to retain a majority in the Senate, surprising success in the ] and internal conflicts led to renewed questions about the strength of neoconservatism.<ref>{{Cite web|date=20 April 2021|title=How a leading anti-Trump group ignored a crisis in its ranks|url=https://apnews.com/article/john-weaver-lincoln-project-crisis-b14be5f06588b8f1d78125d4141394cb|access-date=9 July 2021|website=AP NEWS|language=en|archive-date=23 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123161652/https://apnews.com/article/john-weaver-lincoln-project-crisis-b14be5f06588b8f1d78125d4141394cb|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
'It may be too strong a term to say a fight is going on over John McCain’s soul,' said Lawrence Eagleburger ... who is a member of the pragmatist camp, ... said, "there is no question that a lot of my far right friends have now decided that since you can't beat him, let's persuade him to slide over as best we can on these critical issues.}} | |||
In the ], neoconservative ] retained the portfolio of Under Secretary of State she had held under Obama. President ]'s top diplomat for Afghanistan, ], was also a neocon and a former Bush administration official.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://harpers.org/2014/06/the-long-shadow-of-a-neocon/|title=The Long Shadow of a Neocon: How Big Tech is losing the wars of the future|first=Andrew|last=Cockburn|date=12 June 2014|via=harpers.org}}</ref> | |||
] campaigned for the Democratic nomination during 2008 by attacking his opponents, especially ], for originally endorsing Bush's Iraq-war policies. He gave the impression he would reverse such policies. However, Obama adopted the main parts of the Bush policy for Iraq, naming Clinton to the State Department and keeping ] (Bush's Defense Secretary), and ] (Bush's ranking general in Iraq), as well as implementing the "surge" of military force. By 2010, U.S. forces had switched from combat to a training role in Iraq and they left in 2011.<ref>Stephen McGlinchey, "Neoconservatism and American Foreign Policy", ''Politikon: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science,'' Vol 16, 1 (October 2010).</ref> | |||
==Evolution of opinions== | == Evolution of opinions == | ||
=== Usage and general views === | |||
During the early 1970s, socialist ] was one of the first to use "neoconservative" in its modern meaning. He characterized neoconservatives as former leftists{{spaced ndash}}whom he derided as "socialists for ]"{{spaced ndash}}who had become more conservative.<ref name="harrington"/> These people tended to remain endorsers of ], but distinguished themselves by allying with the Nixon administration with respect to foreign policy, especially by their endorsement of the Vietnam War and opposition to the Soviet Union. They still endorsed the ], but not necessarily in its contemporary form. | |||
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage= | video1 = , ]}} ] remarked that a neoconservative is a "{{Visible anchor|liberal mugged by reality}}", one who became more conservative after seeing the results of liberal policies. Kristol also distinguished three specific aspects of neoconservatism from previous types of conservatism: neo-conservatives had a forward-looking attitude from their liberal heritage, rather than the reactionary and dour attitude of previous conservatives; they had a meliorative attitude, proposing alternate reforms rather than simply attacking social liberal reforms; and they took philosophical ideas and ideologies very seriously.<ref>Kristol, Irving. " {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150416185404/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n121/ai_17489596/pg_5/ |date=16 April 2015 }}". '']'', Fall 1995.</ref> | |||
During January 2009, at the end of President George W. Bush's second term in office, Jonathan Clarke, a senior fellow at the ] and prominent critic of Neoconservatism, proposed the following as the "main characteristics of neoconservatism": "a tendency to see the world in binary good/evil terms", a "low tolerance for diplomacy", a "readiness to use military force", an "emphasis on US unilateral action", a "disdain for multilateral organizations" and a "focus on the Middle East".<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk"> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210212012248/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7825039.stm |date=12 February 2021 }}, Jonathan Clarke, ], 13 January 2009.</ref> | |||
===Usage and general views=== | |||
During the early 1970s, Socialist ] was one of the first to use "neoconservative" in its modern meaning. He characterized neoconservatives as former leftists{{spaced ndash}}whom he derided as "socialists for ]"{{spaced ndash}}who had become more conservative.<ref name="harrington"/> These people tended to remain endorsers of ], but distinguished themselves by allying with the Nixon administration with respect to foreign policy, especially by their endorsement of the Vietnam War and opposition to the USSR. They still endorsed the '']'', but not necessarily in its contemporary form. | |||
=== Opinions concerning foreign policy === | |||
Irving Kristol remarked that a neoconservative is a "{{Visible anchor|liberal mugged by reality}}", one who became more conservative after seeing the results of liberal policies. Kristol also distinguished three specific aspects of neoconservatism from previous types of conservatism: neo-conservatives had a forward-looking attitude from their liberal heritage, rather than the reactionary and dour attitude of previous conservatives; they had a meliorative attitude, proposing alternate reforms rather than simply attacking social liberal reforms; they took philosophical ideas and ideologies very seriously.<ref>Kristol, Irving. "". '']'', Fall 1995.</ref> | |||
{{international relations theory sidebar}} | |||
In foreign policy, the neoconservatives' main concern is to prevent the development of a new rival. ], a document prepared during 1992 by Under Secretary for Defense for Policy Paul Wolfowitz, is regarded by Distinguished Professor of the Humanities ] at the ] as the "quintessential statement of neoconservative thought". The report says:<ref name="McGowan"/> <blockquote>Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power.</blockquote> | |||
According to Lead Editor of ] Stephen McGlinchey: "Neo-conservatism is something of a chimera in modern politics. For its opponents it is a distinct political ideology that emphasizes the blending of military power with Wilsonian idealism, yet for its supporters it is more of a 'persuasion' that individuals of many types drift into and out of. Regardless of which is more correct, it is now widely accepted that the neo-conservative impulse has been visible in modern American foreign policy and that it has left a distinct impact".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.e-ir.info/2009/06/01/neo-conservatism-and-american-foreign-policy/ |title=Neoconservatism and American Foreign Policy |date=June 2009 |access-date=6 November 2013 |archive-date=17 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140417152855/http://www.e-ir.info/2009/06/01/neo-conservatism-and-american-foreign-policy/ |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
During January 2009, at the end of President George W. Bush's second term in office, Jonathan Clarke, a senior fellow at the ], proposed the following as the "main characteristics of neoconservatism": "a tendency to see the world in binary good/evil terms", a "low tolerance for diplomacy", a "readiness to use military force", an "emphasis on US unilateral action", a "disdain for multilateral organizations" and a "focus on the Middle East".<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk">, Jonathan Clarke, ], January 13, 2009.</ref> | |||
Neoconservatism first developed during the late 1960s as an effort to oppose the radical cultural changes occurring within the United States. Irving Kristol wrote: "If there is any one thing that neoconservatives are unanimous about, it is their dislike of the ]".<ref>Kristol, ''What Is a Neoconservative?'' p. 87.</ref> Norman Podhoretz agreed: "Revulsion against the counterculture accounted for more converts to neoconservatism than any other single factor".<ref>Podhoretz, p. 275.</ref> Neoconservatives began to emphasize foreign issues during the mid-1970s.<ref>Vaisse, ''Neoconservatism'' (2010), p. 110.</ref> | |||
===Opinions concerning foreign policy=== | |||
{{International relations theory sidebar}} | |||
In foreign policy, the neoconservatives' main concern is to prevent the development of a new rival. ], a document prepared during 1992 by Under Secretary for Defense for Policy Paul Wolfowitz, is regarded by Distinguished Professor of the Humanities ] at the ] as the "quintessential statement of neoconservative thought". The report says:<ref name="McGowan" /> | |||
<blockquote>"Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power."</blockquote> | |||
] and ] at the NATO–Ukraine consultations in Vilnius, Lithuania, 24 October 2005]] | |||
According to Lead Editor of ], Stephen McGlinchey, "Neo-conservatism is something of a chimera in modern politics. For its opponents it is a distinct political ideology that emphasizes the blending of military power with Wilsonian idealism, yet for its supporters it is more of a 'persuasion' that individuals of many types drift into and out of. Regardless of which is more correct, it is now widely accepted that the neo-conservative impulse has been visible in modern American foreign policy and that it has left a distinct impact".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.e-ir.info/2009/06/01/neo-conservatism-and-american-foreign-policy/ |title=Neoconservatism and American Foreign Policy |deadurl=no |accessdate=6 November 2013}}</ref> | |||
In 1979, an early study by liberal ] concentrated on the ideas of ], ] and ]. He noted that the stress on foreign affairs "emerged after the New Left and the counterculture had dissolved as convincing foils for neoconservatism ... The essential source of their anxiety is not military or geopolitical or to be found overseas at all; it is domestic and cultural and ideological".<ref>Steinfels, p. 69.</ref> | |||
Neoconservative foreign policy is a descendant of so-called ]. Neoconservatives endorse ] by the U.S. and other democracies, based on the conviction that ] are both universal and transcendent in nature. They criticized the ] and ] with the ]. On ], they endorse reductions in the ], like European and ]. According to ], "'the neo-conservatives dissociated themselves from the wholesale opposition to the welfare state which had marked American conservatism since the days of the New Deal' and ... while neoconservatives supported 'setting certain limits' to the welfare state, those limits did not involve 'issues of principle, such as the legitimate size and role of the central government in the American constitutional order' but were to be 'determined by practical considerations'".<ref>] (7 June 2004) {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100628183230/http://www.amconmag.com/article/2004/jun/07/00036/|date=28 June 2010}}, '']''.</ref> | |||
Neoconservatives claim the "conviction that communism was a monstrous evil and a potent danger."<ref>{{Cite news|title=Can the Neocons Get Their Groove Back? |work=] |date=2006-11-19 |first=Joshua |last=Muravchik |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111701474_pf.html |accessdate=19 November 2006}}</ref> They endorse ] programs that were rejected by ] and ].{{citation needed|date=December 2012}} | |||
In April 2006, ] wrote in ''The Washington Post'' that ] and ] may be the greatest "challenge liberalism faces today": {{blockquote|The main protagonists on the side of autocracy will not be the petty dictatorships of the Middle East theoretically targeted by the Bush doctrine. They will be the two great autocratic powers, China and Russia, which pose an old challenge not envisioned within the new 'war on terror' paradigm. ... Their reactions to the 'color revolutions' in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan were hostile and suspicious, and understandably so. ... Might not the successful liberalization of Ukraine, urged and supported by the Western democracies, be but the prelude to the incorporation of that nation into NATO and the European Union – in short, the expansion of Western liberal hegemony?<ref>" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201212184513/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/28/AR2006042801987.html |date=12 December 2020 }}". '']''. 30 April 2006.</ref><ref>" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205093531/http://www.ipsnews.net/2006/05/politics-us-hawks-looking-for-new-and-bigger-enemies/ |date=5 February 2021 }}". ]. 5 May 2006.</ref>}} | |||
Neoconservatism first developed during the late 1960s as an effort to oppose the radical cultural changes occurring within the United States. Irving Kristol wrote: "If there is any one thing that neoconservatives are unanimous about, it is their dislike of the ]."<ref>Kristol, ''What Is a Neoconservative?'' 87.</ref> Norman Podhoretz agreed: "Revulsion against the counterculture accounted for more converts to neoconservatism than any other single factor."<ref>Podhoretz, 275.</ref> Neoconservatives began to emphasize foreign issues during the mid-1970s.<ref>Vaisse, ''Neoconservatism'' (2010) p. 110.</ref> | |||
Trying to describe the evolution within the neoconservative school of thought is bedeviled by the fact that a coherent version of Neoconservatism is difficult to distill from the various diverging voices who are nevertheless considered to be neoconservative. On the one hand were individuals such as former Ambassador ] | |||
During 1979 an early study by liberal ] concentrated on the ideas of ], ] and ]. He noted that the stress on foreign affairs "emerged after the New Left and the counterculture had dissolved as convincing foils for neoconservatism .... The essential source of their anxiety is not military or geopolitical or to be found overseas at all; it is domestic and cultural and ideological."<ref>Steinfels, 69.</ref> | |||
who embodied views that were hawkish yet still fundamentally in line with ]. The more institutionalized neoconservatism that exerted influence through think tanks, the media and government officials, rejected Realpolitik and thus the ]. This rejection became an impetus to push for active US support for democratic transitions in various autocratic nations.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pee |first1=Robert |last2=Lucas |first2=Scott |title=Reevaluating Democracy Promotion: The Reagan Administration, Allied Authoritarian States, and Regime Change |journal=Journal of Cold War Studies |date=2 September 2022 |volume=24 |issue=3 |doi=10.1162/jcws_a_01090 |s2cid=252014598 |url=https://direct.mit.edu/jcws/article-abstract/24/3/151/112895/Reevaluating-Democracy-PromotionThe-Reagan?redirectedFrom=fulltext |access-date=6 July 2023}}</ref> | |||
In the 1990s leading thinkers of this modern strand of the neoconservative school of thought, Robert Kagan and Bill Kristol, published an essay in which they lay out the basic tenants of what they call a Neo-Reaganite foreign policy. In it they reject a "return to normalcy" after the end of the ] and argue that the United States should instead double down on defending and extending the ]. They trace the origin of their approach to foreign policy back to the foundation of the United States as a revolutionary, liberal capitalist republic. As opposed to advocates of Realpolitik, they argue that domestic politics and foreign policies are inextricably linked making it natural for any nation to be influenced by ideology, ideals and concepts of morality in their respective international conduct. Hence, this archetypical neoconservative position attempts to overcome the dichotomy of ] and ] emphasizing instead that a values-driven foreign policy is not just consistent with American historical tradition but that it is in the ] of the United States.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kagan |first1=Robert |last2=Kristol |first2=Bill |title=Toward a Neo-Reaganite Foreign Policy |journal=Foreign Affairs |date=1 July 1996 |volume=75 |issue=July/August 1996 |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/1996-07-01/toward-neo-reaganite-foreign-policy |access-date=6 July 2023}}</ref> | |||
Neoconservative foreign policy is a descendant of so-called ]. Neoconservatives endorse ] by the U.S. and other democracies, based on the claim that they think that human rights belong to everyone. They criticized the ] and ] with the ]. On ], they endorse a ], like European and Canadian conservatives and unlike American ]. According to ], | |||
=== Views on economics === | |||
{{quote|"the neo-conservatives dissociated themselves from the wholesale opposition to the welfare state which had marked American conservatism since the days of the New Deal" and . . . while neoconservatives supported "setting certain limits" to the welfare state, those limits did not involve "issues of principle, such as the legitimate size and role of the central government in the American constitutional order" but were to be "determined by practical considerations."<ref>] (2004-06-07) , '']''.</ref>}} | |||
While neoconservatism is concerned primarily with foreign policy, there is also some discussion of internal economic policies. Neoconservatism generally endorses ]s and ], favoring ], but it has several disagreements with ] and ]. Irving Kristol states that neocons are more relaxed about budget deficits and tend to reject the ] notion that the growth of government influence on society and public welfare is "]".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/000tzmlw.asp?page=2 |author=Irving Kristol |title=The Neoconservative Persuasion |publisher=Weekly Standard |date=25 August 2003 |access-date=6 November 2013 |archive-date=9 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909225210/http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/000tzmlw.asp?page=2 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Indeed, to safeguard democracy, government intervention and budget deficits may sometimes be necessary, Kristol argues. After the so-called "reconciliation with capitalism", self-identified "neoconservatives" frequently favored a reduced welfare state, but not its elimination. | |||
Neoconservative ideology stresses that while free markets do provide material goods in an efficient way, they lack the moral guidance human beings need to fulfill their needs. They say that morality can be found only in tradition and that markets do pose questions that cannot be solved solely by economics, arguing: "So, as the economy only makes up part of our lives, it must not be allowed to take over and entirely dictate to our society".<ref>Murray, p. 40.</ref> Critics consider neoconservatism a bellicose and "heroic" ideology opposed to "mercantile" and "bourgeois" virtues and therefore "a variant of anti-economic thought".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/000553.php |publisher=Social Affairs Unit |author=William Coleman |title=Heroes or Heroics? Neoconservatism, Capitalism, and Bourgeois Ethics |access-date=6 November 2013 |archive-date=30 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730161848/http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/000553.php |url-status=live }}</ref> Political scientist ] states: "Neoconservatism has succeeded in convincing the great majority of Americans that the main questions that concern a society are not economic, and that social questions are really moral questions".<ref>{{cite book | last1=Sternhell | first1=Zeev | last2=Maisel | first2=David | title=The anti-enlightenment tradition |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press | date=2010 | isbn=978-0-300-15633-1 | oclc=667065029}} p. 436.</ref> | |||
] is allegedly derived from a belief that freedom is a universal ] and by opinion polls showing majority support for democracy in countries with authoritarian regimes. Democracy promotion is said to have another benefit, in that democracy and responsive government are expected to reduce the appeal of ]. Neoconservatives have cited political scientists{{citation needed|date=May 2009}} who have argued that democratic regimes are less likely to start wars. Further, they argue that the lack of freedoms, lack of economic opportunities, and the lack of secular general education in authoritarian regimes promotes radicalism and extremism. Consequently, neoconservatives advocate democracy promotion to regions of the world where it currently does not prevail, notably the ], ], communist China and ]. | |||
=== Friction with other conservatives === | |||
During April 2006 ] wrote in ''The Washington Post'' that ] and ] may be the greatest "challenge liberalism faces today": | |||
Many conservatives oppose neoconservative policies and have critical views on it. Disputes over the ] in domestic and foreign policy, especially given the ], can impede (and facilitate) studies of the impact of ] precepts on neo-conservatism, but that of course didn't, and still doesn't, stop pundits from publishing appraisals. For example, ] and Jonathan Clarke (a libertarian based at Cato), in their 2004 book on neoconservatism, ''America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order'',<ref name="America Alone">say that neocons "propose an untenable model for our nation's future" (p. 8) and then outline what they think is the inner logic of the movement:{{cite book|last1=Halper|first1=Stefan|last2=Clarke|first2=Johnathan|title=America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order|year=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, United Kingdom|isbn=978-0-521-83834-4|url=https://archive.org/details/americaaloneneoc00halp}}</ref> characterized the neoconservatives at that time as uniting around three common themes:{{blockquote| | |||
# A belief deriving from religious conviction that the human condition is defined as a choice between good and evil and that the true measure of political character is to be found in the willingness by the former (themselves) to confront the latter. | |||
# An assertion that the fundamental determinant of the relationship between states rests on military power and the willingness to use it. | |||
# A primary focus on the Middle East and global Islam as the principal theater for American overseas interests. | |||
In putting these themes into practice, neo-conservatives: | |||
{{quote|"The main protagonists on the side of autocracy will not be the petty dictatorships of the Middle East theoretically targeted by the Bush doctrine. They will be the two great autocratic powers, China and Russia, which pose an old challenge not envisioned within the new "war on terror" paradigm. ... Their reactions to the "color revolutions" in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan were hostile and suspicious, and understandably so. ... Might not the successful liberalization of Ukraine, urged and supported by the Western democracies, be but the prelude to the incorporation of that nation into NATO and the European Union—in short, the expansion of Western liberal hegemony?"<ref>"". '']''. April 30, 2006.</ref><ref>"". ]. May 5, 2006.</ref>}} | |||
# Analyze international issues in ] categories. They are fortified by a conviction that they alone hold the moral high ground and argue that disagreement is tantamount to defeatism. | |||
# Focus on the "unipolar" power of the United States, seeing the use of military force as the first, not the last, option of foreign policy. They repudiate the "lessons of Vietnam", which they interpret as undermining American will toward the use of force, and embrace the "]", interpreted as establishing the virtues of preemptive military action. | |||
# Disdain conventional diplomatic agencies such as the State Department and conventional country-specific, realist, and pragmatic, analysis (see ]). They are hostile toward nonmilitary multilateral institutions and instinctively antagonistic toward international treaties and agreements. "Global unilateralism" is their watchword. They are fortified by international criticism, believing that it confirms American virtue. | |||
# Look to the Reagan administration as the ] and seek to establish their version of Reagan's legacy as the Republican and national orthodoxy.<ref name="America Alone"/>{{rp|10–11}}}} | |||
Responding to a question about neoconservatives in 2004, ] said: "I think those I know, which is most of them, are bright, informed and idealistic, but that they simply overrate the reach of U.S. power and influence".<ref name=nytmds>Sanger, Deborah, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201118191236/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/magazine/way-we-live-now-7-11-04-questions-for-william-f-buckley-conservatively-speaking.html |date=18 November 2020 }}, interview in '']'', 11 July 2004. Retrieved 6 March 2008</ref> | |||
During July 2008 ] wrote in '']'' that today's neoconservatives are more interested in confronting enemies than in cultivating friends. He questioned the sincerity of neoconservative interest in exporting democracy and freedom, saying, "Neoconservatism in foreign policy is best described as unilateral bellicosity cloaked in the utopian rhetoric of freedom and democracy."<ref>Klein, Joe ''Time'', July 23, 2008.</ref> | |||
=== Friction with paleoconservatism === | |||
During February 2009 ] wrote he no longer took neoconservatism seriously because its basic tenet was defense of Israel:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/02/a-false-premise.html |author=Andrew Sullivan |title=A False Premise |publisher=Sullivan's Daily Dish |date=February 5, 2009 |deadurl=no |accessdate=6 November 2013}}</ref> {{quote|The closer you examine it, the clearer it is that neoconservatism, in large part, is simply about enabling the most irredentist elements in Israel and sustaining a permanent war against anyone or any country who disagrees with the Israeli right. That's the conclusion I've been forced to these last few years. And to insist that America adopt exactly the same constant-war-as-survival that Israelis have been slowly forced into... But America is not Israel. And once that distinction is made, much of the neoconservative ideology collapses.}} | |||
{{main|Neoconservatism and paleoconservatism}} | |||
Starting during the 1980s, disputes concerning Israel and public policy contributed to a conflict with ]. ] terms neoconservatism "a ], ], ]".<ref>Tolson 2003.</ref> ] has written that the neocons' call for "]" exists independently of their beliefs about Israel,<ref name="gottfried48">" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224055128/https://www.lewrockwell.com/1970/01/paul-gottfried/fatuous-and-malicious/ |date=24 February 2021 }}" by Paul Gottfried. ''LewRockwell.com'', 28 March 2003.</ref> characterizing the neoconservatives as "ranters out of a Dostoyevskian novel, who are out to practice permanent revolution courtesy of the U.S. government" and questioning how anyone could mistake them for conservatives.<ref name="Goldberg Is Not the Worst"> {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20150210064700/http://archive.lewrockwell.com/gottfried/gottfried47.html |date=10 February 2015 }} by Paul Gottfried. ''LewRockwell.com'', 20 March 2003.</ref> <blockquote>What make neocons most dangerous are not their isolated ghetto hang-ups, like hating Germans and Southern whites and calling everyone and his cousin an anti-Semite, but the leftist revolutionary fury they express.<ref name="Goldberg Is Not the Worst"/></blockquote>He has also argued that domestic equality and the exportability of democracy are points of contention between them.<ref>Paul Gottfried's ''Paleoconservatism'' article in "American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia" (ISI:2006)</ref> | |||
], United States ] during the Reagan administration and associated with paleoconservatism stated in 2003 that "there is nothing conservative about neoconservatives. Neocons hide behind 'conservative' but they are in fact ]s. Jacobins were the 18th century French revolutionaries whose intention to remake Europe in revolutionary France's image launched the ]".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Neo-Jacobins Push For World War IV|url=https://www.lewrockwell.com/2003/09/paul-craig-roberts/neo-jacobins-push-for-world-war-iv/|access-date=9 July 2021|website=LewRockwell|language=en|archive-date=14 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914214809/https://www.lewrockwell.com/2003/09/paul-craig-roberts/neo-jacobins-push-for-world-war-iv/|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Neoconservatives respond to charges of merely rationalizing aid for Israel by noting that their "position on the Middle East conflict was exactly congruous with the neoconservative position on conflicts everywhere else in the world, including places where neither Jews nor Israeli interests could be found—not to mention the fact that non-Jewish neoconservatives took the same stands on all of the issues as did their Jewish confrères."<ref>Joshua Muravchik, ''Commentary'' October 2007.</ref> | |||
=== |
==== Trotskyism allegation ==== | ||
Critics have argued that since the founders of neo-conservatism included ex-], Trotskyist traits continue to characterize neo-conservative ideologies and practices.<ref name="FA">{{cite news|url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/1995-07-01/trotskyism-anachronism-neoconservative-revolution|title=Trotskyism to Anachronism: The Neoconservative Revolution|last=Judis|first=John B.|newspaper=Foreign Affairs|date=August 1995|access-date=22 January 2020|archive-date=11 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111070452/https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/1995-07-01/trotskyism-anachronism-neoconservative-revolution|url-status=live}}</ref> During the Reagan administration, the charge was made that the ] was being managed by ex-Trotskyists. This claim was cited by {{harvtxt|Lipset|1988|p=34}}, who was a neoconservative and former Trotskyist himself.<ref name="Lip34">"A 1987 article in ''The New Republic'' described these developments as a Trotskyist takeover of the Reagan administration", wrote {{harvtxt|Lipset|1988|p=34}}.</ref> This "Trotskyist" charge was repeated and widened by journalist ] during 2003 to assert a takeover of the ] by former Trotskyists;<ref>{{cite journal|title=The weird men behind George W. Bush's war |first=Michael |last=Lind |journal=New Statesman |location=London |date=7 April 2003 |url=http://www.oss.net/dynamaster/file_archive/030408/d431cc57ce9014da63b65ea39c1fd657/8%20Apr%2003%20The%20weird%20men%20behind%20George%20W%20Bush.doc |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927131121/http://www.oss.net/dynamaster/file_archive/030408/d431cc57ce9014da63b65ea39c1fd657/8%20Apr%2003%20The%20weird%20men%20behind%20George%20W%20Bush.doc |archive-date=27 September 2011 }}</ref> Lind's "amalgamation of the defense intellectuals with the traditions and theories of 'the largely Jewish-American Trotskyist movement' " was criticized during 2003 by University of Michigan professor Alan M. Wald,<ref name="harv27June2003">{{cite journal|date=27 June 2003|title=Are Trotskyites Running the Pentagon?|first=Alan|last=Wald|author-link=Alan M. Wald|journal=History News Network|url=http://hnn.us/articles/1514.html|access-date=27 September 2011|archive-date=18 August 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090818163043/http://hnn.us/articles/1514.html|url-status=live}}</ref> who had discussed Trotskyism <!-- and neoconservatism --> in his history of "]"<!-- annotation by editor of journal, so not OR -->.<ref name="Wald">{{cite book|last=Wald|first=Alan M.|title=The New York intellectuals: The rise and decline of the anti-Stalinist left from the 1930s to the 1980s'|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|year=1987|isbn=978-0-8078-4169-3}}</ref><ref name="tandfonline">{{cite journal|last=King|first=William|title=Neoconservatives and 'Trotskyism'|journal=American Communist History|volume=3|pages=247–66|year=2004|doi=10.1080/1474389042000309817|issn=1474-3892|issue=2|s2cid=162356558}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=King|first=Bill|title=Neoconservatives and Trotskyism|journal=]|pages=1–2|url=http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0304/0304neocontrotp1.htm|issn=1488-1756|date=22 March 2004|issue=3|access-date=29 July 2005|archive-date=5 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605072632/http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0304/0304neocontrotp1.htm|url-status=live}} The question of 'Shachtmanism'</ref> | |||
While neoconservatism is concerned primarily with foreign policy, there is also some discussion of internal economic policies. Neoconservatism generally endorses ]s and ], favoring ], but it has several disagreements with ] and ]: Irving Kristol states that neocons are more relaxed about budget deficits and tend to reject the ] notion that the growth of government influence on society and public welfare is "the road to serfdom."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/000tzmlw.asp?page=2 |author=Irving Kristol |title=The Neoconservative Persuasion |publisher=Weekly Standard |date=August 25, 2003 |deadurl=no |accessdate=6 November 2013}}</ref> Indeed, to safeguard democracy, government intervention and budget deficits may sometimes be necessary, Kristol argues. | |||
The charge that neoconservativism is related to ] has also been made by ]. He argued that both believe in the "existence of a long-term process of social evolution", though neoconservatives seek to establish ] instead of ].<ref name="Fukuyama">Fukuyama, F. (19 February 2006). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121101152315/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/magazine/neo.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 |date=1 November 2012 }}. ''The New York Times Magazine.'' Retrieved 1 December 2008.</ref> He wrote that neoconservatives "believed that history can be pushed along with the right application of power and will. Leninism was a tragedy in its ] version, and it has returned as farce when practiced by the United States. Neoconservatism, as both a political symbol and a body of thought, has evolved into something I can no longer support".<ref name="Fukuyama"/> However, these comparisons ignore anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist positions central to Leninism, which run contradictory to core neoconservative beliefs.<ref>"Imperialism", ''The Penguin Dictionary of International Relations'' (1998), by Graham Evans and Jeffrey Newnham. p. 244.</ref> | |||
Further, neoconservative ideology stresses that while free markets do provide material goods in an efficient way, they lack the moral guidance human beings need to fulfill their needs. Morality can be found only in tradition, they say and, contrary to ], markets do pose questions that cannot be solved solely by economics. "So, as the economy only makes up part of our lives, it must not be allowed to take over and entirely dictate to our society."<ref>Murray, p. 40.</ref> Critics consider neoconservatism a bellicose and "heroic" ideology opposed to "mercantile" and "bourgeois" virtues and therefore "a variant of anti-economic thought."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/000553.php |publisher=Social Affairs Unit |author=William Coleman |title=Heroes or Heroics? Neoconservatism, Capitalism, and Bourgeois Ethics |deadurl=no |accessdate=6 November 2013}}</ref> Political scientist ] states, "Neoconservatism has succeeded in convincing the great majority of Americans that the main questions that concern a society are not economic, and that social questions are really moral questions."<ref>Zeev Sternhell: ''The Anti-Enlightenment Tradition''. New Haven, Yale University Press, 2010 ISBN 978-0-300-13554-1 p. 436.</ref> | |||
== Criticism == | |||
===Distinctions from other conservatives=== | |||
Critics of neoconservatism take issue with neoconservatives' support for interventionistic foreign policy. Critics from the ] take issue with what they characterize as ] and lack of concern with international consensus through organizations such as the ].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kinsley |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Kinsley |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57779-2005Apr15.html |title=The Neocons' Unabashed Reversal |newspaper=] |date=17 April 2005 |page=B07 |access-date=25 December 2006 |archive-date=3 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191003093419/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57779-2005Apr15.html |url-status=live }} Kinsley quotes ], whom he describes as "a conservative of the non-neo variety", as criticizing the neoconservatives "messianic vision" and "excessive optimism"; Kinsley contrasts the present-day neoconservative foreign policy to earlier neoconservative Jeane Kirkpatrick's "tough-minded pragmatism".</ref><ref>Martin Jacques, " {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516034405/http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9115,1448960,00.html |date=16 May 2008 }}", '']'', 31 March 2005. Retrieved 25 December 2006. (Cited for "unilateralism".)</ref><ref>Rodrigue Tremblay, " {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070103040206/http://www.mlq.qc.ca/7_pub/cl/tremblay_en.html |date=3 January 2007 }}", presented at the Conference at the American Humanist Association annual meeting Las Vegas, 9 May 2004. Retrieved 25 December 2006 on the site of the Mouvement laïque québécois.</ref> | |||
Some influential members of early neoconservatism, such as ], were originally members of the ], and as such advocated for "cold war liberalism".<ref>{{Cite journal |url=http://books.google.com/?id=7o5Cpjkk4qsC&pg=PA427&dq=neocon+democrat#v=onepage&q=neocon%20democrat&f=false |title=The prince of darkness: 50 years reporting in Washington |isbn=978-1-4000-5199-1 |author1=Novak |first1=Robert D |year=2007 |ref=harv}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | url = http://books.google.com/?id=GqZ_JSy-QOkC&pg=PA113&dq=neocon+democrat#v=onepage&q=neocon%20democrat&f=false | title = They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons | isbn = 978-1-4000-7620-8 | author1 = Heilbrunn | first1 = Jacob | date = 2009-01-06 | ref = harv}}</ref> But since the election of Ronald Reagan during 1980—in some cases even before that—they have been in electoral alignment with the Republican Party and have served in the same presidential administrations. While they have often ignored ideological differences in alliance against relative leftists, neoconservatives differ from '']''. In particular, they disagree with ], ], and ] in foreign policy, ideologies that are traditionally American but have been strongly disfavored by the elite and intellectuals since World War II {{dubious|date=June 2014}}. Compared with ] and ], which may be non-interventionist, neoconservatism emphasizes confrontation, challenging regimes hostile to the alleged values and interests of the United States.{{citation needed|date=July 2008}} Neoconservatives also believe in ], the proposition that democracies never or almost never war with one another. | |||
Critics from both the left and right have assailed neoconservatives for the role Israel plays in their policies on the Middle East.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926225705/https://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=79552&page=1&singlePage=true|date=26 September 2020}} Dual Loyalty?, By Rebecca Phillips, ABC News, 15 March 2003</ref><ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123184807/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2008/07/joe-klein-on-neoconservatives-and-iran/8614/|date=23 November 2020}} Joe Klein on Neoconservatives and Iran, Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic, 29 July 2008</ref> | |||
===Criticism of terminology=== | |||
Some of those identified as ''neoconservative'' reject the term, arguing that it lacks a coherent definition, or that it was coherent only in the context of the Cold War. For example, conservative writer ] argues that the increasing use of the term ''neoconservative'' since the 2003 start of the ] has made it irrelevant:{{citation needed|date=April 2007}} <!-- missing cite to "a recent interview with an Italian newspaper" --> | |||
{{quote|Neo-conservatism is a term almost exclusively used by the enemies of America's liberation of Iraq. There is no 'neo-conservative' movement in the United States. When there was one, it was made up of former Democrats who embraced the welfare state but supported Ronald Reagan's Cold War policies against the Soviet bloc. Today 'neo-conservatism' identifies those who believe in an aggressive policy against radical Islam and the global terrorists.}} | |||
The term may have lost meaning due to excessive and inconsistent usage. For example, ], ], and ] have been identified{{by whom|date=September 2012}} as neoconservatives despite the fact that they have been lifelong Republicans (though Cheney and Rice have endorsed ]'s ideas) and differ from most neoconservatives on some issues.{{citation needed|date=September 2012}} | |||
Some critics reject the idea that there is a neoconservatism separate from traditional American conservatism; some traditional conservatives are skeptical of the contemporary usage of the term and dislike being associated with its stereotypes or supposed agendas. For example, columnist ] wrote, "These days, it seems that even temperate support for military action against dictators and terrorists qualifies you a neocon."<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=2332 |title=Beware the Neocons |first=David |last=Harsanyi |authorlink=David Harsanyi |work=] |date=2002-08-13 |accessdate=31 August 2008}}</ref> ] rejected the term as trite and over-used, arguing, "There's nothing 'neo' about me: I was never anything other than conservative."{{citation needed|date=September 2012}} | |||
====Allegations of antisemitism==== | |||
{{Further|New antisemitism}} | |||
Some writers and intellectuals have argued that criticism of neoconservatism is often a euphemism for criticism of Jews, and that the term has been adopted by independents and the political left to stigmatize endorsement of Israel. In '']'', Robert J. Lieber wrote that writers such as ], ] and ] have created a theory that identified neoconservative ] as the center of a conspiracy involving the manipulation of the ] to gain control of the US military and make war on Iraq in the interest of Israel rather than the US.<ref>{{Cite news|first=Robert J. |last=Lieber |url=http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=7550 |title=The Left's Neocon Conspiracy Theory |work=] |date=2003-04-29 |accessdate=31 March 2008}}</ref> | |||
], in ], has suggested it is legitimate to examine the religion of neoconservatives. He does not say there was a conspiracy but says there is a case to be made for disproportionate influence of Jewish neoconservatives on US foreign policy, and that several of them endorsed the Iraq war because of Israel's interests, though sometimes in an unconscious contradiction to American interests: | |||
{{quote|I do believe that there is a group of people who got involved and had a disproportionate influence on U.S. foreign policy. There were people out there in the Jewish community who saw this as a way to create a benign domino theory and eliminate all of Israel's enemies.... I think it represents a really dangerous anachronistic neocolonial sensibility. And I think it is a very, very dangerous form of extremism. I think it's bad for Israel and it's bad for America. And these guys have been getting a free ride. And now these people are backing the notion of a war with Iran and not all of them, but some of them, are doing it because they believe that Iran is an existential threat to Israel.<ref>]: The Atlantic blog, July 29, 2008.</ref>}} | |||
] derided the "fantasies" of "full-mooners fixated on a... sort of Yiddish ]", beliefs which had "hardened into common knowledge... In truth, people labeled neocons (con is short for 'conservative' and neo is short for 'Jewish') travel in widely different circles..."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brooks |first=David |editor=Irwin Stelzer |title=The NeoCon Reader |publisher=Grove |year=2004 |isbn=0-8021-4193-5 |chapter=The Neocon Cabal and Other Fantasies}}</ref> ] argued that the neoconservative label is used as an antisemitic pejorative:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-antisemitism&month=0304&week=&msg=4zdiWX1EuCVzeRLDdQySKA&user=&pw= |title=Letter from Washington |last=Rubin |first=Barry |work=h-antisemitism |date=2003-04-06|deadurl=no |accessdate=6 November 2013}}</ref> | |||
{{quote|First, 'neo-conservative' is a codeword for Jewish. As antisemites did with big business moguls in the nineteenth century and Communist leaders in the twentieth, the trick here is to take all those involved in some aspect of public life and single out those who are Jewish. The implication made is that this is a Jewish-led movement conducted not in the interests of all the, in this case, American people, but to the benefit of Jews, and in this case Israel.}} | |||
====Trotskyism allegation==== | |||
] is the type of ] advocated by ] and his followers, emphasizing ] concepts of ] in opposition to ], and international ], while critical of ] and the USSR. Critics of neo-conservatism have charged that neo-conservatism is descended from Trotskyism, and that Trotskyist traits continue to characterize ideologies and practices of neo-conservatism. During the Reagan Administration, the charge was made that the ] was being managed by Trotskyists.{{citation needed|date=September 2012}} This claim was called a "myth" by {{harvtxt|Lipset|1988|p=34}}:<ref name="Lip34">"A 1987 article in ''The New Republic'' described these developments as a Trotskyist takeover of the Reagan administration", wrote {{harvtxt|Lipset|1988|p=34}}.</ref> This "Trotskyist" charge has been repeated and even widened by journalist ] during 2003 to assert a takeover of the ] by former Trotskyists;<ref>{{cite journal|title=The weird men behind George W. Bush's war|first=Michael|last=Lind|journal=New Statesman|location=London|date=7 April 2003 | |||
|url=http://www.oss.net/dynamaster/file_archive/030408/d431cc57ce9014da63b65ea39c1fd657/8%20Apr%2003%20The%20weird%20men%20behind%20George%20W%20Bush.doc | |||
|ref=harv}}</ref> Lind's "amalgamation of the defense intellectuals with the traditions and theories of 'the largely Jewish-American Trotskyist movement' " was criticized during 2003 by University of Michigan professor Alan M. Wald,<ref name="harv27June2003">{{cite journal|month=27 June|year=2003|title=Are Trotskyites Running the Pentagon?|first=Alan|last= Wald|authorlink=Alan M. Wald|journal=History News Network|url=http://hnn.us/articles/1514.html|ref=harv}}</ref> who had discussed Trotskyism <!-- and neoconservatism --> in his history of "]"<!-- annotation by editor of journal, so not OR -->.<ref name="Wald">{{cite book|last=Wald|first=Alan M.|title=The New York intellectuals: The rise and decline of the anti-Stalinist left from the 1930s to the 1980s'|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|year=1987|isbn=0-8078-4169-2|ref=harv}}</ref><ref name="tandfonline">{{cite journal|last=King|first=William|title=Neoconservatives and 'Trotskyism'|journal=American Communist History|volume=3|pages=247–266|year=2004|doi=10.1080/1474389042000309817 | |||
|url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1474389042000309817|publisher=Taylor and Francis|issn=1474-3892|ref=harv|issue=2}} | |||
<p> | |||
{{cite journal|last=King|first=Bill|title=Neoconservatives and Trotskyism|journal=] |pages=1 2|chapter=The question of 'Shachtmanism'|url=http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0304/0304neocontrotp1.htm|issn=1488-1756 |date=March 22, 2004 |ref=harv |issue=3}} | |||
</ref> | |||
The charge that neoconservativism is related to ] has been made, also. ] identified neoconservatism with Leninism during 2006.<ref name="Fukuyama"/> He wrote that neoconservatives: | |||
{{quote|…believed that history can be pushed along with the right application of power and will. Leninism was a tragedy in its ] version, and it has returned as farce when practiced by the United States. Neoconservatism, as both a political symbol and a body of thought, has evolved into something I can no longer support.<ref name="Fukuyama"/>}} | |||
==Criticisms== | |||
The term ''neoconservative'' may be used pejoratively by self-described ], ], ], ], or ]. | |||
Critics take issue with neoconservatives' support for aggressive foreign policy. Critics from the ] take issue with what they characterize as ] and lack of concern with ] through organizations such as the ].<ref>{{Cite news|last=Kinsley |first=Michael |authorlink=Michael Kinsley |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57779-2005Apr15.html |title=The Neocons' Unabashed Reversal |work=] |date=2005-04-17 |page=B07 |accessdate=25 December 2006}} Kinsley quotes ], whom he describes as "a conservative of the non-neo variety", as criticizing the neoconservatives "messianic vision" and "excessive optimism"; Kinsley contrasts the present-day neoconservative foreign policy to earlier neoconservative Jeane Kirkpatrick's "tough-minded pragmatism".</ref><ref>Martin Jacques, "", '']'', March 31, 2005. Retrieved 25 December 2006. (Cited for "unilateralism".)</ref><ref>Rodrigue Tremblay, "", presented at the Conference at the American Humanist Association annual meeting Las Vegas, May 9, 2004. Retrieved 25 December 2006 on the site of the Mouvement laïque québécois.</ref> | |||
Neoconservatives respond by describing their shared opinion as a ] that national security is best attained by actively promoting freedom and democracy abroad as in the ] through the endorsement of democracy, foreign aid and in certain cases ]. This is different from the traditional conservative tendency to endorse friendly regimes in matters of trade and anti-communism even at the expense of undermining existing democratic systems. | Neoconservatives respond by describing their shared opinion as a ] that national security is best attained by actively promoting freedom and democracy abroad as in the ] through the endorsement of democracy, foreign aid and in certain cases ]. This is different from the traditional conservative tendency to endorse friendly regimes in matters of trade and anti-communism even at the expense of undermining existing democratic systems. | ||
In a column on '']'' named "Years of Shame" commemorating the tenth anniversary of 9/11, ] criticized them for causing a supposedly entirely unrelated war.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Krugman |first=Paul |date=12 September 2011 |title=More About the 9/11 Anniversary |url=https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/more-about-the-911-anniversary/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210315214341/https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/more-about-the-911-anniversary/ |archive-date=15 March 2021 |website=] |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Sargent |first=Greg |date=12 September 2011 |title=Paul Krugman's allegation of 9/11 shame — is he right? |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/about-that-paul-krugman-allegation-of-911-shame/2011/03/03/gIQAdwBMNK_blog.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205121442/https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/about-that-paul-krugman-allegation-of-911-shame/2011/03/03/gIQAdwBMNK_blog.html |archive-date=5 February 2021 |newspaper=] |language=}}</ref> | |||
Republican Congressman ] has been a longtime critic of neoconservativism as an attack on freedom and the U.S. Constitution, including an extensive speech on the House floor addressing neoconservative beginnings and how neoconservatism is neither new nor conservative. | |||
=== Adherence to conservatism === | |||
] in a column named 'Years Of Shame' commemorating the tenth anniversary of 9/11 attacks, criticized the Neoconservatives for causing a war unrelated to 9/11 attacks and fought for wrong reasons.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/more-about-the-911-anniversary/ |author=Paul Krugman |title=More About the 9/11 Anniversary |publisher=] |date=September 12, 2011 |deadurl=no |accessdate=6 November 2013}} (Cited for "criticism by a significant source".)</ref><ref> Paul Krugman’s allegation of 9/11 shame — is he right?, Greg Sargent, Washington Post, September 12, 2011</ref> | |||
Former ] Congressman ] (now a ] politician) has been a longtime critic of neoconservativism as an attack on freedom and the Constitution, including an extensive speech on the House floor addressing neoconservative beginnings and how neoconservatism is neither new nor conservative.<ref>Archived at {{cbignore}} and the {{cbignore}}: {{Cite web|url=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OSY296oTHyw|title = Ron Paul - Neo-CONNED!|website = ]| date=20 April 2011 }}{{cbignore}}</ref> | |||
===Imperialism and secrecy=== | === Imperialism and secrecy === | ||
{{see also|Criticism of United States foreign policy}} | |||
], professor of humanities at the ], states, after an extensive review of neoconservative literature and theory, that neoconservatives are attempting to build an ], seen as successor to the ], its goal being to perpetuate a ]. As imperialism is largely considered unacceptable by the American media, neoconservatives do not articulate their ideas and goals in a frank manner in public discourse. McGowan states,<ref name="McGowan">{{Cite book|last=McGowan |first=J. |year=2007 |chapter=Neoconservatism |pages=124–133 |title=American Liberalism: An Interpretation for Our Time |location=Chapel Hill |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=0-8078-3171-9}}</ref> | |||
], professor of humanities at the ], states after an extensive review of neoconservative literature and theory that neoconservatives are attempting to build an ], seen as successor to the ], its goal being to perpetuate a "]". As imperialism is largely considered unacceptable by the American media, neoconservatives do not articulate their ideas and goals in a frank manner in public discourse. McGowan states:<ref name="McGowan">{{Cite book |last=McGowan |first=J. |year=2007 |chapter=Neoconservatism |pages= |title=American Liberalism: An Interpretation for Our Time |location=Chapel Hill |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-3171-7 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/americanliberali00mcgo_0/page/124 }}</ref> {{blockquote|Frank neoconservatives like Robert Kaplan and Niall Ferguson recognize that they are proposing imperialism as the alternative to liberal internationalism. Yet both Kaplan and Ferguson also understand that imperialism runs so counter to American's liberal tradition that it must ... remain a foreign policy that dare not speak its name ... While Ferguson, the Brit, laments that Americans cannot just openly shoulder the white man's burden, Kaplan the American, tells us that "only through stealth and anxious foresight" can the United States continue to pursue the "imperial reality already dominates our foreign policy", but must be disavowed in light of "our anti-imperial traditions, and ... the fact that imperialism is delegitimized in public discourse"... The Bush administration, justifying all of its actions by an appeal to "national security", has kept as many of those actions as it can secret and has scorned all limitations to executive power by other branches of government or international law.}} | |||
== Notable people associated with neoconservatism == | |||
{{quote|Frank neoconservatives like Robert Kaplan and Niall Ferguson recognize that they are proposing imperialism as the alternative to ]. Yet both Kaplan and Ferguson also understand that imperialism runs so counter to American's liberal tradition that it must... remain a foreign policy that dare not speak its name... While Ferguson, the Brit, laments that Americans cannot just openly shoulder the white man's burden, Kaplan the American, tells us that "only through stealth and anxious foresight" can the United States continue to pursue the "imperial reality already dominates our foreign policy", but must be disavowed in light of "our anti-imperial traditions, and... the fact that imperialism is delegitimized in public discourse"... The Bush administration, justifying all of its actions by an appeal to "national security", has kept as many of those actions as it can secret and has scorned all limitations to executive power by other branches of government or international law.}} | |||
The list includes public people identified as personally neoconservative at an important time or a high official with numerous neoconservative advisers, such as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. | |||
=== Politicians === | |||
===Friction with moderate conservatives=== | |||
] announces his $74.7 billion wartime supplemental budget request as ] and ] look on]] | |||
Many moderate conservatives oppose neoconservative policies and have sharply negative views on it. For example, Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke (a libertarian based at CATO), in their 2004 book on neoconservatism, “America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order",<ref name="America Alone">say that neocons "propose an untenable model for our nation's future" (p 8) and then outline what they think is the inner logic of the movement:{{cite book|last1=Halper|first1=Stefan|last2=Clarke|first2=Johnathan|title= America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order|year=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, United Kingdom|isbn=978-0-521-83834-4 }}</ref> characterized the neoconservatives, at that time, as uniting: | |||
* ] – 43rd ], 46th U.S. ]<ref name="Neoconservativeconvergence">{{cite news|url=https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/charles-krauthammer/the-neoconservative-convergence/|title=The Neoconservative Convergence|last=Krauthammer|first=Charles|date=1 July 2005|work=Commentary Magazine|access-date=6 April 2020|archive-date=9 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109021819/https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/charles-krauthammer/the-neoconservative-convergence/|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
{{quotation|… around three common themes: | |||
* ] – 43rd U.S. ], 2016 Republican presidential candidate<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/jeb-bush-neoconservative |title=Jeb Bush, neoconservative |publisher=Fox News |date=18 February 2015 |access-date=12 June 2016 |archive-date=12 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612142127/http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/18/jeb-bush-neoconservative.html |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
# A belief deriving from religious conviction that the human condition is defined as a choice between good and evil and that the true measure of political character is to be found in the willingness by the former (themselves) to confront the latter. | |||
* ] – 46th ]<ref name="Neoconservativeconvergence"/> | |||
# An assertion that the fundamental determinant of the relationship between states rests on military power and the willingness to use it. | |||
* ] – former ]<ref name="Neoconservativeconvergence"/> | |||
# A primary focus on the Middle East and global Islam as the principal theater for American overseas interests. | |||
* ] – former U.S. Senator from Washington<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kirsch |first1=Adam |title=Muscular Movement |url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/muscular-movement |access-date=17 July 2023 |publisher=Tablet |date=1 June 2010}}</ref> | |||
In putting these themes into practice, neo-conservatives: | |||
* ] – former U.S. Senator from Connecticut, 2000 Democratic vice-presidential nominee<ref>{{cite news |last1=Byron |first1=Tau |title=Lieberman to join conservative group |url=https://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/joe-lieberman-to-join-conservative-think-tank-088697 |access-date=12 July 2023 |publisher=Politico |date=3 November 2013}}</ref> | |||
# Analyze international issues in black-and-white, absolute moral categories. They are fortified by a conviction that they alone hold the moral high ground and argue that disagreement is tantamount to defeatism. | |||
* ] – former U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from Arizona, 2000 Republican presidential candidate, 2008 Republican presidential nominee<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/john-mccain-neocon_b_82530|title=John McCain, Neocon|date=21 January 2008|work=HuffPost|access-date=15 June 2019|archive-date=23 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123172906/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/john-mccain-neocon_b_82530|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://nationalinterest.org/blog/jacob-heilbrunn/john-mccains-neocon-manifesto-7404|title=John McCain's Neocon Manifesto|publisher=National Interest|date=29 August 2012|access-date=12 June 2016|archive-date=24 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224235031/https://nationalinterest.org/blog/jacob-heilbrunn/john-mccains-neocon-manifesto-7404|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2008/05/when-it-comes-to-foreign-policy-john-mccain-is-more-of-a-neocon-than-president-bush.html|title=Worse Than Bush|date=28 May 2008|work=Slate|access-date=15 June 2019|archive-date=7 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201207054044/https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2008/05/when-it-comes-to-foreign-policy-john-mccain-is-more-of-a-neocon-than-president-bush.html|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
# Focus on the "unipolar" power of the United States, seeing the use of military force as the first, not the last, option of foreign policy. They repudiate the "lessons of Vietnam," which they interpret as undermining American will toward the use of force, and embrace the "lessons of Munich," interpreted as establishing the virtues of preemptive military action. | |||
* ]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Preble |first=Christopher A. |date=2016-03-08 |title=Marco Rubio: The Neocons' Last Stand? |url=https://www.cato.org/commentary/marco-rubio-neocons-last-stand |access-date=2024-09-16 |publisher=]}}</ref> | |||
# Disdain conventional diplomatic agencies such as the State Department and conventional country-specific, realist, and pragmatic, analysis. They are hostile toward nonmilitary multilateral institutions and instinctively antagonistic toward international treaties and agreements. "Global unilateralism" is their watchword. They are fortified by international criticism, believing that it confirms American virtue. | |||
* ]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/10/top-house-china-hawk-to-retire-opening-seat-in-battleground-wisconsin.html | title=Top House China hawk to retire, opening seat in battleground Wisconsin | website=] | date=10 February 2024 }}</ref> | |||
# Look to the Reagan administration as the exemplar of all these virtues and seek to establish their version of Reagan's legacy as the Republican and national orthodoxy.<ref name="America Alone"/>{{rp|10–11}} }} | |||
* ] – former Director of the ] (CIA) and ] ]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nationalinterest.org/feature/pompeo-goes-full-neocon-97432|title=Pompeo Goes Full Neocon|first=Matthew|last=Petti|date=18 November 2019|website=The National Interest}}</ref> | |||
* ] – 46th ] from 2015 to 2023<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/410517/who-is-republican-2024-candidate-asa-hutchinson/|title=Who is Republican 2024 candidate Asa Hutchinson?|first=Brady|last=Knox|date=2 April 2023|website=Washington Examiner}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/12/us/politics/asa-hutchinson-iowa.html|title=Asa Hutchinson Is Selling Bush-Era Republicanism. Buyers Are Scarce.|first1=Jonathan|last1=Weisman|first2=Ann Hinga|last2=Klein|date=12 July 2023|website=The New York Times}}</ref> | |||
* ] – 29th ], 116th U.S. ], 2024 Republican presidential candidate <ref>{{cite news |last1=Devlin |first1=Bradley |title=Tuberville: Nikki Haley is a 'Neocon' |url=https://www.theamericanconservative.com/tuberville-nikki-haley-is-a-neocon/ |access-date=14 January 2024 |publisher=The American Conservative |date=5 January 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Ecarma |first1=Caleb |title=Nikki Haley's Long Shot Bid Might Be the GOP's Best Shot at Dumping Trump |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/10/nikki-haley-long-shot-bid-gop-dumping-trump |access-date=14 January 2024 |publisher=Vanity Fair |date=13 October 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/09/opinion/republican-debate-winners-losers.html|title='She Certainly Beat All the Boys': Winners and Losers of the Third G.O.P. Debate|date=9 November 2023|work=]|access-date=14 January 2024|archive-date=15 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240115020202/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/09/opinion/republican-debate-winners-losers.html}}</ref> | |||
=== Government officials === | |||
===Friction with paleoconservatism=== | |||
] orating at ] in March 2017]] | |||
{{Main|Neoconservatism and paleoconservatism}} | |||
* ] – former U.S. government official, current President and Chief Executive Officer of ]<ref>{{Cite web|title=John Walters|url=https://militarist-monitor.org/profile/john-walters/|website=Militarist Monitor}}</ref> | |||
* ] – academic and defense-related government officer<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/11/11/the-battle-for-who-owns-conservative-statecraft/|title=The battle for who owns 'conservative statecraft'|last1=Larison|first1=Daniel|date=11 November 2022|website=Responsible Statecraft}}</ref> | |||
* ] – foreign policy advisor<ref name="Bernstein">{{cite web|author=Adam Bernstein|title=Irving Kristol dies at 89; godfather of neoconservatism|date=18 September 2009|quote=many neoconservatives, such as Paul Wolfowitz, William Bennett, Richard Perle and Elliott Abrams|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-irving-kristol19-2009sep19-story.html|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|access-date=30 June 2017|archive-date=25 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225044837/https://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-irving-kristol19-2009sep19-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/trumps-neocon-elliott-abrams/515784/|title=Elliott Abrams: Trump's Neocon?|date=6 February 2017|work=The Atlantic|access-date=15 June 2019|archive-date=17 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201217120312/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/trumps-neocon-elliott-abrams/515784/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/25/elliott-abrams-envoy-venezuela-1128562|title=Elliott Abrams, prominent D.C. neocon, named special envoy for Venezuela|date=25 January 2019|work=Politico|access-date=14 April 2019|archive-date=4 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204115156/https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/25/elliott-abrams-envoy-venezuela-1128562|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="How Neoconservatives Conquered Washington – and Launched a War">{{cite web|url=http://www.antiwar.com/orig/lind1.html|title=How Neoconservatives Conquered Washington – and Launched a War|date=10 April 2003|work=Antiwar.com|access-date=15 June 2019|archive-date=26 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126094224/http://www.antiwar.com/orig/lind1.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Chechen Terrorists and the Neocons">{{cite web|url=https://consortiumnews.com/2013/04/19/chechen-terrorists-and-the-neocons/|title=Chechen Terrorists and the Neocons|date=19 April 2013|work=Consortium News|access-date=16 June 2019|archive-date=7 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210207000130/https://consortiumnews.com/2013/04/19/chechen-terrorists-and-the-neocons/|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
* ] – former Assistant Secretary of Defense and lobbyist<ref name="Bernstein"/><ref name="Chechen Terrorists and the Neocons"/> | |||
* ]<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last1=Jentleson|first1=Bruce W.|last2=Whytock|first2=Christopher A.|s2cid=57572461|date=March 30, 2006|title=Who 'Won' Libya? The Force-Diplomacy Debate and Its Implications for Theory and Policy|journal=International Security|volume=30|issue=3|pages=47–86|doi=10.1162/isec.2005.30.3.47|url=https://scholarship.law.uci.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1752&context=faculty_scholarship|access-date=10 July 2024|archive-date=26 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426205246/https://scholarship.law.uci.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1752&context=faculty_scholarship|url-status=dead}}</ref> | |||
* ] – former Director of Arms Control and Disarmament Agency<ref name="Chechen Terrorists and the Neocons"/> | |||
* ] – former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, former Director of the National Drug Control Policy and former U.S. Secretary of Education<ref name="Bernstein"/><ref>Edward B. Fiske, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117041217/https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/22/magazine/reagan-s-man-for-education.html?pagewanted=all |date=17 November 2020 }}, ''The New York Times'' (22 December 1985): "Bennett's scholarly production has consisted primarily of articles in neo-conservative journals like Commentary, Policy Review and The Public Interest."</ref> | |||
* ] – former State Department Counselor, now Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies at the ] at the Johns Hopkins University<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Cohen_Eliot/|title=Cohen, Eliot|work=Right Web|publisher=Institute for Policy Studies|date=30 January 2017|quote=Eliot Cohen, a professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), has been an important supporter of neoconservative-led foreign policy campaigns. Sometimes touted as 'the most influential neocon in academe,' Cohen had multiple roles in the George W. Bush administration ...|access-date=25 March 2016|archive-date=19 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181019190817/https://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/cohen_eliot/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Return of the Neocons: Trump's Surprising Cabinet Candidates">{{cite web|url=http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2016/11/17/Return-Neocons-Trump-s-Surprising-Cabinet-Candidates|title=Return of the Neocons: Trump's Surprising Cabinet Candidates|date=17 November 2016|work=The Fiscal Times|access-date=16 June 2019|archive-date=10 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200810195109/http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2016/11/17/Return-Neocons-Trump-s-Surprising-Cabinet-Candidates|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
* ] – former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy<ref>{{cite web |last1=Edelman |first1=Eric |title=Eric Edelman Oral History |url=https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-oral-histories/eric-edelman-oral-history |website=Miller Center |access-date=6 July 2023 |date=2 June 2017}}</ref> | |||
* ] – Executive Director of the McCain Institute, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia<ref>{{cite news |last1=Farkas |first1=Evelyn |title=The US Must Prepare for War Against Russia Over Ukraine |url=https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2022/01/us-must-prepare-war-against-russia-over-ukraine/360639/ |access-date=7 July 2023 |publisher=Defense One |date=11 January 2022}}</ref> | |||
* ] – former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy<ref name="How Neoconservatives Conquered Washington – and Launched a War"/> | |||
* ] – former Ambassador to the United Nations under Ronald Reagan, influenced by traditional realist thinking<ref>{{cite web|author=Joe Holley|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/09/AR2007020901129.html|title=Jeane J. Kirkpatrick; U.N. Ambassador Upheld Reagan Doctrine|newspaper=Washington Post|date=9 December 2006|quote=Kirkpatrick became a neoconservative in the 1970s and then a Republican Party stalwart.|access-date=6 September 2017|archive-date=19 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191119014244/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/09/AR2007020901129.html|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
* ] – Executive Director of the George W. Bush Institute, former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor<ref>{{cite web |title=David Kramer |url=http://www.allgov.com/officials/kramer-david?officialid=28464 |website=AllGov |access-date=7 July 2023}}</ref> | |||
* ] – former ], co-founder and former editor of '']'', professor of political philosophy and American politics and political adviser<ref>{{cite web|url=https://townhall.com/columnists/jackkerwick/2016/05/26/bill-kristol-a-neoconservative-not-a-conservative-n2168923|title=Bill Kristol: A Neoconservative, Not a Conservative|date=26 May 2016|work=Townhall|access-date=15 June 2019|archive-date=17 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117053812/https://townhall.com/columnists/jackkerwick/2016/05/26/bill-kristol-a-neoconservative-not-a-conservative-n2168923|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Drezner">Daniel W. Drezner, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328204846/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/12/12/who-belongs-in-the-anti-trump-coalition/ |date=28 March 2019 }}, ''Washington Post'' (12 December 2017): " is hardly the only neoconservative to fall into this category; see, for example, Peter Wehner or Jennifer Rubin."</ref> | |||
* ] – former Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States<ref>{{cite web|last=Dickerson|first=John|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2005/10/who_is_scooter_libby.html|title=Who is Scooter Libby?|work=Slate|date=21 October 2005|quote=Libby is a neocon's neocon. He studied political science at Yale under former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and began working with his former teacher under Cheney at the Defense Department during the George H.W. Bush administration ...|access-date=22 March 2016|archive-date=11 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211003935/https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/10/who-is-scooter-libby.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="How Neoconservatives Conquered Washington – and Launched a War"/> | |||
* ] – former ]<ref>{{cite web|author=Samuel Moyn|url=http://www.thenation.com/article/world/war-ukraine-russia-putin-military|title=The War Party Is Back|magazine=The Nation|date=7 September 2023|access-date=26 October 2023}}</ref> | |||
* ]<ref name="Neoconservativeconvergence"/> | |||
* ] – foreign policy advisor and lobbyist<ref>{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Ben |title=Scheunemann advising Palin for 'wide-ranging' Hong Kong talk |url=https://www.politico.com/blogs/ben-smith/2009/09/scheunemann-advising-palin-for-wide-ranging-hong-kong-talk-021611 |access-date=17 April 2022 |website=POLITICO |date=22 September 2009 |language=en |archive-date=13 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210313000316/https://www.politico.com/blogs/ben-smith/2009/09/scheunemann-advising-palin-for-wide-ranging-hong-kong-talk-021611 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
* ] – former U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO<ref>{{cite web |last1=Volker |first1=Kurt |title=Grey Zones are Green Lights – Bring Ukraine Into NATO |url=https://cepa.org/article/grey-zones-are-green-lights-bring-ukraine-into-nato/ |website=CEPA |access-date=7 July 2023 |date=20 June 2023}}</ref> | |||
* ] – former State and Defense Department official<ref name="Bernstein"/><ref>{{cite web |author=David Corn |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/jeb-bush-adviser-paul-wolfowitz |title=The Jeb Bush Adviser Who Should Scare You |publisher=Mother Jones |date=13 May 2015 |access-date=12 June 2016 |archive-date=25 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125213232/https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/jeb-bush-adviser-paul-wolfowitz/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.asiasentinel.com/politics/paul-wolfowitz-neocon-blueprint-us-strategic-action/|title=Paul Wolfowitz's Neocon Blueprint for US Strategic Action|date=21 May 2019|work=Asia Sentinel|access-date=15 June 2019|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803232245/https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/paul-wolfowitz-neocon-blueprint-us-strategic-action|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="How Neoconservatives Conquered Washington – and Launched a War"/> | |||
* ] – former Undersecretary of the Navy, former Director of Central Intelligence, green energy lobbyist<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/woolsey_james/|title=Woolsey, James|publisher=Institute for Policy Studies|work=Right Web|date=5 January 2017|quote=Woolsey blends Democratic Party domestic politics with advocacy for neoconservative foreign policy causes ... Like other neoconservatives, Woolsey is a staunch backer of Middle East policies similar to those of Israel's right-wing Likud Party|access-date=4 April 2016|archive-date=24 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224195956/https://militarist-monitor.org/profile/james-woolsey|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="How Neoconservatives Conquered Washington – and Launched a War"/><ref name="Return of the Neocons: Trump's Surprising Cabinet Candidates"/><ref name="Chechen Terrorists and the Neocons"/><ref name="As Green as a Neocon">{{cite web|url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/01/neocons-who-drive-priuses.html|title=As Green as a Neocon|date=25 January 2005|work=Slate|access-date=16 June 2019|archive-date=7 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201207104801/https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/01/neocons-who-drive-priuses.html|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
=== Public figures === | |||
Starting during the 1980s, disputes concerning Israel and public policy contributed to a conflict with ], | |||
who argue that neoconservatives are an illegitimate addition to conservatism. For example, ] terms neoconservatism "a globalist, interventionist, open borders ideology."<ref>Tolson 2003.</ref> The dispute is often traced back to a 1981 disagreement over Ronald Reagan's nomination of ], a Southerner, to manage the ]. Bradford withdrew after neoconservatives complained that he had criticized ]; the paleoconservatives had endorsed Bradford. | |||
]]] | |||
=== Dual loyalty === | |||
] speaking to Policy Exchange in 2013]] | |||
{{Main|Dual loyalty}} | |||
* ] – co-founder and former executive editor of '']''<ref>], {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328214905/https://prospect.org/article/%E2%80%98weekly-standard%E2%80%99-and-eclipse-center-right |date=28 March 2019 }}, ''The American Prospect'' (5 December 2018): "Founded in 1995 by the neoconservatives Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes..."</ref> | |||
* ] – author, consultant, editorialist, lecturer, and military historian;<ref name="nyt"/> formerly, publicly distanced himself and renounced Neoconservatism <ref>{{cite journal |last1=Boot |first1=Max |title=What the Neocons Got Wrong |journal=Foreign Affairs |date=10 March 2023 |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/iraq/what-neocons-got-wrong |access-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> | |||
* ] – columnist <ref>{{cite news|work=Lobelog|title=Yes, Virginia, David Brooks is a Neo-Con|url=https://lobelog.com/yes-virginia-david-brooks-is-a-neo-con/|access-date=15 July 2020|archive-date=5 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805051726/https://lobelog.com/yes-virginia-david-brooks-is-a-neo-con/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|work=Center for American Progress|title=Neoconservatism on the Decline|url=https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/general/news/2013/08/15/72338/neoconservatism-on-the-decline/|access-date=15 July 2020|archive-date=11 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111212548/https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/general/news/2013/08/15/72338/neoconservatism-on-the-decline/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|work=Foreign Policy|title=When Zombie Neoconservatives Attack|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/17/when-zombie-neoconservatives-attack/|access-date=15 July 2020|archive-date=26 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126051631/https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/17/when-zombie-neoconservatives-attack/|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
* ] – journalist, author † <ref name="Chechen Terrorists and the Neocons"/> | |||
]]] | |||
* ] - American journalist, author and columnist who held a senior policy analyst role at ] (FDD), a neo-conservative think tank based in ]<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last1=Janiskee |editor-first1=Brian P. |editor-last2=Masugi |editor-first2=Ken |title=The California Republic: Institutions, Statesmanship, and Policies |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |year=2004 |isbn=0-7425-3250-X |location=Lanham, Maryland |page=368}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Abrams |first=Nathan |title=Norman Podhoretz and Commentary Magazine: The Rise and Fall of the Neocons |publisher=The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4411-0968-2 |location=New York, NY |page=1 |chapter=Introduction}}</ref> | |||
* ]<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/20/niall-ferguson-interview-civilization | title=Niall Ferguson: 'Westerners don't understand how vulnerable freedom is' | newspaper=The Observer | date=20 February 2011 | last1=Skidelsky | first1=William }}</ref> | |||
* ] – journalist, Republican speechwriter and columnist<ref>{{cite book |last=Mann |first=James |author-link=James Mann (writer) |title=Rise of the Vulcans |publisher=Penguin Books |edition=1st paperback |date=September 2004 |page= |isbn=978-0-14-303489-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/riseofvulcanshis00mann/page/318 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://original.antiwar.com/justin/2012/08/16/the-reinvention-of-david-frum/|title=The Reinvention of David Frum|date=17 August 2012|work=Antiwar.com|access-date=16 June 2019|archive-date=17 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201217152205/https://original.antiwar.com/justin/2012/08/16/the-reinvention-of-david-frum/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/01/no_author/neocon-war-criminal-tells-cnn-viewers-to-trust-media-because-it-lies/|title=Neocon War Criminal Tells CNN Viewers to Trust Media Because It Lies|date=2 January 2018|work=LewRockwell.com|access-date=16 June 2019|archive-date=2 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202211310/https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/01/no_author/neocon-war-criminal-tells-cnn-viewers-to-trust-media-because-it-lies/|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
* ] – writer, political analyst and senior fellow at the ]<ref>{{cite news|work=]|title=GOP foreign policy elites flock to Clinton|date=6 July 2016|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/national-security-clinton-trump-225137|access-date=18 June 2019|archive-date=7 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210107062002/https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/national-security-clinton-trump-225137|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
* ] – founding editor of '']'' | |||
* ] | |||
* ] – activist, former U.S. military intelligence officer<ref name="Chechen Terrorists and the Neocons"/> | |||
* ] – Sterling Professor of Classics and History at Yale University †.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2 April 2019|title=Up from Brownsville: A Podcast with Donald Kagan|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/brownsville-and-beyond/|access-date=23 September 2021|website=National Review|language=en-US|archive-date=7 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201107234755/https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/brownsville-and-beyond/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Italie|first=Hillel|title=Donald Kagan, leading neo-conservative historian, dead at 89|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/donald-kagan-leading-neo-conservative-historian-dead-at-89/|access-date=23 September 2021|website=www.timesofisrael.com|language=en-US|archive-date=17 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817213255/https://www.timesofisrael.com/donald-kagan-leading-neo-conservative-historian-dead-at-89/|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
* ] – historian, resident scholar at the ]<ref>Jeanne Morefield, '' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123161642/https://books.google.com/books?id=QdDQAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA73&hl=en |date=23 January 2023 }}'', Oxford University Press, 2014, p. 73</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WCtpaW6UaGEC&pg=PT41|title=The Culture of Immodesty in American Life and Politics: The Modest Republic|editor=Michael P. Federici|editor2=Mark T. Mitchell|editor3=Richard M. Gamble|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|date=2013|isbn=978-1-137-09341-7|access-date=17 May 2020|archive-date=23 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123161649/https://books.google.com/books?id=WCtpaW6UaGEC&pg=PT41|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OSy1COVFdakC&pg=PA154 |title=The Strange Death of Republican America: Chronicles of a Collapsing Party, Sydney Blumenthal, Union Square Press, 2008 |access-date=12 June 2016 |isbn=978-1-4027-5789-1 |last1=Blumenthal |first1=Sidney |year=2008 |publisher=Sterling Publishing Company |archive-date=23 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123161643/https://books.google.com/books?id=OSy1COVFdakC&pg=PA154 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
* ] – senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, scholar of U.S. foreign policy, founder of the '']'', adviser to Republican political campaigns and one of 25 members of an advisory board to ] at the State Department (Kagan calls himself a "liberal interventionist" rather than "neoconservative")<ref name=nytimes-kagan>{{citation |title=Events in Iraq Open Door for Interventionist Revival, Historian Says |first=Jason |last=Horowitz |work=] |date=15 June 2014 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/16/us/politics/historians-critique-of-obama-foreign-policy-is-brought-alive-by-events-in-iraq.html |access-date=7 February 2017 |archive-date=4 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204055432/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/16/us/politics/historians-critique-of-obama-foreign-policy-is-brought-alive-by-events-in-iraq.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/27/usa |title=A neocon by any other name |last=Beaumont |first=Peter |date=26 April 2008 |work=The Guardian |access-date=12 December 2016 |archive-date=13 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213124735/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/27/usa |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
* ] – Pulitzer Prize winner, columnist and psychiatrist † <ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622063517/https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/charles-krauthammer-pulitzer-prize-winning-columnist-and-intellectual-provocateur-dies-at-68/2018/06/21/b71ee41a-759e-11e8-b4b7-308400242c2e_story.html |date=22 June 2018 }}, ''Washington Post'' (21 June 2018): "championed the muscular foreign policy of neoconservatism..."</ref> | |||
* ] – publisher, journalist and columnist † <ref>{{cite web |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/09/23/was-irving-kristol-a-neoconservative/ |title=Was Irving Kristol a Neoconservative? |publisher=Foreign Policy |date=23 September 2009 |access-date=12 June 2016 |archive-date=17 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117031334/https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/09/23/was-irving-kristol-a-neoconservative/ |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
* ] – journalist and columnist<ref name="ntrump">{{cite news|work=]|title=Are the Neocons Finally with Trump?|date=17 October 2017|url=https://nationalinterest.org/feature/after-the-neocons-finally-trump-22767|access-date=14 April 2019|archive-date=23 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201223083858/https://nationalinterest.org/feature/after-the-neocons-finally-trump-22767|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
* ] – historian, foreign policy analyst, scholar at the ]<ref name="Chechen Terrorists and the Neocons"/> | |||
* ] – founder and president of the ]<ref>{{cite news|title=The most influential US conservatives: 81–100|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1435460/The-most-influential-US-conservatives-81-100.html|date=29 October 2007|access-date=21 July 2009|newspaper=]|archive-date=28 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128095311/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1435460/The-most-influential-US-conservatives-81-100.html|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
* ] - political scholar<ref>{{cite news |last1=Muravchik |first1=Joshua |title=The Future is Neocon |url=https://nationalinterest.org/greatdebate/neocons-realists/future-neocon-3803?nopaging=1 |access-date=17 July 2023 |date=1 September 2008}}</ref> | |||
* ]<ref>{{cite news|last1=Taheri |first1=Amir|author-link=Amir Taheri|title=Neoconservatism: Why We Need It |date=20 January 2006 |url=https://eng-archive.aawsat.com/amir-taheri/interviews/neoconservatism-why-we-need-it|newspaper=]|access-date=3 February 2020}}</ref> | |||
* ]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/30/trump-china-xi-jinping-g20-michael-pillsbury-1034610 | title=The China hawk who captured Trump's 'very, very large brain' | website=] | date=30 November 2018 }}</ref> | |||
* ]<ref>{{cite news |url =http://www.abc.net.au/cgi-bin/common/printfriendly.pl?/pm/content/2006/s1603043.htm |title =US led coalition no longer responsible for Iraq: Daniel Pipes |publisher =] |last =Colvin |first =Mark |date =March 28, 2006 |access-date =2018-12-03 |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20160304025700/http://www.abc.net.au/cgi-bin/common/printfriendly.pl?%2Fpm%2Fcontent%2F2006%2Fs1603043.htm |archive-date =2016-03-04 |url-status =dead }}</ref> | |||
* ]<ref>{{cite magazine|first = Eyal|last = Press|title = Neocon man: Daniel Pipes has made his name inveighing against an academy overrun by political extremists but he is nothing if not extreme in his own views.|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb1367/is_200405/ai_n6382769|magazine = The Nation|date = May 2004|access-date =August 17, 2007|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20071113071644/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb1367/is_200405/ai_n6382769 <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = November 13, 2007}}</ref> | |||
* ] – American Enterprise Institute vice president<ref>Jacob Heilbrunn, ''They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons'' (Anchor Books, 2009), pp. 224-25: "Danielle Pletka ... a leading neocon"</ref> | |||
* ] – editor of '']''<ref>{{Cite web |title=John Podhoretz – Commentary Magazine |url=https://www.commentary.org/author/john-podhoretz/ |access-date=2024-03-02 |language=en-US}}</ref> | |||
* ] – editor-in-chief of '']''<ref>Nathan Abrams, ''Norman Podhoretz and Commentary Magazine: The Rise and Fall of the Neocons'' (Bloomsbury, 2011).</ref><ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205213846/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/nyregion/norman-podhoretz-still-picks-fights-and-drops-names.html |date=5 December 2020 }}, ''New York Times'' (17 March 2017): "became a shaper of the neoconservative movement".</ref> | |||
*] – founding editor of '']'' (2009–present) and director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the ].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Yuval Levin|url=https://www.aei.org/profile/yuval-levin/|access-date=23 September 2021|website=American Enterprise Institute - AEI|language=en-US|archive-date=11 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111064354/https://www.aei.org/profile/yuval-levin/|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
* ] – resident scholar at the ]<ref>Michael Rubin, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220208071407/https://www.aei.org/publication/why-neoconservatism-was-and-is-right/ |date=8 February 2022 }} (Washington: American Enterprise Institute, 2010).</ref> | |||
* ] – resident scholar at the ]<ref>John Davis, ''Presidential Policies and the Road to the Second Iraq War: From Forty One to Forty Three'' (Ashgate, 2006), p. 1: "neoconservative Gary Schmitt"</ref><ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201218170709/https://www.economist.com/united-states/2007/04/19/sidelined-by-reality |date=18 December 2020 }}, ''The Economist'' (19 April 2007): " Gary Schmitt, a fellow neocon, complained of Mr Feith..."</ref> | |||
] speaking at the 2016 ] at the ] in ], ]]] | |||
* ] – political commentator, public speaker, author, lawyer, founder and editor emeritus of ].<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Aaron|last1=Hyzen|first2=Hilde Van den|last2=Bulck|title=Conspiracies, Ideological Entrepreneurs, and Digital Popular Culture|url=https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4092|journal=Media and Communication|date=13 September 2021|issn=2183-2439|pages=179–188|volume=9|issue=3|doi=10.17645/mac.v9i3.4092 |doi-access=free |hdl=10067/1809590151162165141|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=Boyd D.|last1=Cathey|title=The Vanishing Tradition |chapter=9. The Unwanted Southern Conservatives|chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781501749872-011/html|publisher=Cornell University Press|date=7 September 2020|pages=122–133 |isbn=978-1-5017-4987-2|via=www.degruyter.com|doi=10.1515/9781501749872-011|s2cid=242919831 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=Paul|last1=Gottfried|title=Revisions and Dissents |chapter=9. The European Union Elections, 2014|chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781501757495-011/html|publisher=Cornell University Press|date=11 February 2021|pages=95–100 |isbn=978-1-5017-5749-5|via=www.degruyter.com|doi=10.1515/9781501757495-011}}</ref> | |||
* ] – journalist and columnist for '']''<ref>{{cite news|work=]|date=30 April 2017|title=Who's Afraid of Bret Stephens?|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/30/whos-afraid-of-bret-stephens-215085|access-date=22 November 2019|archive-date=12 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201212091245/https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/30/whos-afraid-of-bret-stephens-215085|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
* ] – economist and writer<ref>C. Bradley Thompson with Yaron Brook, ''Neoconservatism, An Obituary for an Idea'' (Taylor & Francis, 2010: Routledge 2016 ed.): "neoconservative economist Irwin Stelzer"</ref> | |||
* ]<ref>{{cite news|first1=Michael|last1=Lerner|accessdate=2019-11-01|title=THE CONSCIENCE OF A NEOCONSERVATIVE|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1993/01/03/the-conscience-of-a-neoconservative/f72e260b-8275-49d9-8da5-4d2af29a748b/|newspaper=Washington Post|date=3 January 1993|issn=0190-8286|via=www.washingtonpost.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first1=Benjamin|last1=Schreier|title=New York Intellectual/Neocon/Jewish; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Ignore Ruth Wisse|journal=Studies in American Jewish Literature|date= n.d. |issn=0271-9274|pages=97–108|volume=31|issue=1|doi=10.5325/studamerjewilite.31.1.0097|jstor=10.5325/studamerjewilite.31.1.0097|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first1=Rabbi Levi|last1=Welton|accessdate=2019-11-01|title=The Road From Yiddish To Politics|date=June 24, 2019 |url=https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/interviews-and-profiles/the-road-from-yiddish-to-politics/2019/06/24/}}</ref> | |||
== Related publications and institutions == | |||
In the run up to the invasion of Iraq charges of dual loyalty were levelled against the neoconservatives from various sectors. The debate was heated, with charges of Antisemitism and counter charges being leveled. | |||
=== Institutions === | |||
* ]<ref>{{cite book|author=Matthew Christopher Rhoades|title=Neoconservatism: Beliefs, the Bush Administration, and the Future|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bnlVbs5HSicC&pg=PA110|year=2008|page=110|isbn=978-0-549-62046-4|access-date=12 June 2016}}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> | |||
ABC News was among prominent mainstream news outlets covering the debate.<blockquote>Critics of U.S. Iraq policy, on the right and the left, have drawn accusations of anti-Semitism for asserting that certain members of Bush's administration (namely Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz; Richard Perle, chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board; and Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy) have dual loyalty — interests in both the United States and Israel.<ref> Dual Loyalty? Are Israeli Interests ‘The Elephant in the Room’ in the Conflict With Iraq? Rebecca Phillips, ABC News, March 15, 2003</ref></blockquote> | |||
* ]<ref>{{cite book|author=John Feffer|title=Power Trip: Unilateralism and Global Strategy After September 11|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t8PQgoFju7UC&pg=PA231|year=2003|publisher=Seven Stories Press|page=231|isbn=978-1-60980-025-3|access-date=12 June 2016|archive-date=23 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123161644/https://books.google.com/books?id=t8PQgoFju7UC&pg=PA231|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Foster|first=Peter|title=Obama's new head boy|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-politics/9891755/Obamas-new-head-boy.html|access-date=12 March 2013|newspaper=The Telegraph (UK)|date=24 February 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130228034030/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-politics/9891755/Obamas-new-head-boy.html|archive-date=28 February 2013|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=csmonitor>{{cite news|last=Jonsson|first=Patrik|title=Shooting of two soldiers in Little Rock puts focus on 'lone wolf' Islamic extremists|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2009/0611/p02s01-usju.html|access-date=13 March 2013|newspaper=Christian Science Monitor|date=11 June 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130406031548/http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2009/0611/p02s01-usju.html|archive-date=6 April 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
* ]<ref>K. Dodds, K. and S. Elden, "Thinking Ahead: David Cameron, the Henry Jackson Society and BritishNeoConservatism", ''British Journal of Politics and International Relations'' (2008), 10(3): 347–63.</ref> | |||
* ]<ref name="Danny Cooper 2011 45">{{cite book|author=Danny Cooper|title=Neoconservatism and American Foreign Policy: A Critical Analysis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CNyZILpcSgkC&pg=PA45|year=2011|publisher=Taylor & Francis|page=45|isbn=978-0-203-84052-8|access-date=12 June 2016|archive-date=23 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123161657/https://books.google.com/books?id=CNyZILpcSgkC&pg=PA45|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
* ]<ref>{{cite book|author=Matthew Christopher Rhoades|title=Neoconservatism: Beliefs, the Bush Administration, and the Future|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bnlVbs5HSicC&pg=PA14|year=2008|page=14|isbn=978-0-549-62046-4|access-date=12 June 2016}}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> | |||
=== Publications === | |||
Patrick Buchanan issued a scathing statement in a cover article for the ].<blockquote>Neocons say we attack them because they are Jewish. We do not. We attack them because their warmongering threatens our country, even as it finds a reliable echo in Ariel Sharon. <ref> Whose War? Partick J. Buchanan, American Conservative, March 24,2003</ref></blockquote> | |||
Joe Klein had the following to say in response to having been labelled an anti-Semite for criticizing the Jewish neoconservatives for having dual loyalty.<blockquote>When Jennifer Rubin or Abe Foxman calls me antisemitic, they're wrong. I am anti-neoconservative. I think these people are following very perversely extremist policies and I really did believe that it was time for mainstream Jews to stand up and say, "They don't represent us, they don't represent Israel."''<ref> </ref></blockquote> | |||
==Neoconservatism in other countries== | |||
{{see also|British neoconservatism|Neoconservatism in the Czech Republic|Neoconservatism in Japan}} | |||
{{Expand section|date=June 2011}} | |||
Neoconservatism has been influential in other countries. Variants of it can be found in the ], the ], ]<ref>''Neoconservatism is the only answering ideology to national needs of Azerbaijan.'' - Hikmet Babaoglu, chief editor of ruling party ] funded newspaper ]. </ref> and ] | |||
==Notable people associated with neoconservatism== | |||
{{refimprove section|date=December 2012}} | |||
The list includes public people identified as personally neoconservative at an important time or a high official with numerous neoconservative advisers, such as George W. Bush and Richard Cheney. Some are dead, or are ex-neoconservatives. | |||
{{col-begin}} | |||
{{col-break}} | |||
===Politicians=== | |||
] | |||
* ] (D) – ] (2007–2011), ] (2003–2007) and ] (2001–2003)<ref>http://www.theamericanconservative.com/if-neocons-love-lieberman-why-not-crist/</ref><ref>http://www.msnbc.com/politicsnation/charlie-crist-racism-why-he-left-gop</ref> | |||
* ] (R) – ] (2011–present), U.S. Representative from Oklahoma (2007–2011) and ] (1995–2007){{cn|date=November 2014}} | |||
* ] (R) – U.S. Representative from ] (1979–1999), ] (1995–1999) and 2012 presidential candidate<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/4/newt-gingrich-rethinks-neoconservative-views/?page=all#pagebreak |title=Newt Gingrich sees major Mideast mistakes, rethinks his neocon views on intervention |deadurl=no |accessdate=6 November 2013}}</ref> | |||
* ] (R) – ] (1996–2002) and 2008 presidential candidate<ref>http://reason.com/blog/2007/07/10/rudy-the-neo-con</ref><ref>http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/05/why-neocons-love-the-strongman.html</ref> | |||
* ] (R) – Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (2001–2003) and U.S. Representative from ] (1997–2001){{cn|date=November 2014}} | |||
* ] (R) – ] (2011–present){{cn|date=November 2014}} | |||
===Government officials=== | |||
* ] (R) – State and Defense Department official | |||
* ] - ], Under Secretary of the Navy, green energy lobbyist. | |||
* ] – Assistant Secretary of Defense, lobbyist. | |||
* ] (R) – Ambassador to the United Nations. | |||
* ] – Chief-of-Staff to Cheney.{{citation needed|date=December 2012}} | |||
* ] - Ambassador to the United Nations (2005-2006), recess appointee. | |||
* ] (R) – foreign policy adviser. | |||
* ] – under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.{{citation needed|date=December 2012}} | |||
* ] – US State Department Counselor 2007-2009, now Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. | |||
===Academics=== | |||
] | |||
* ] – Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Historian, founder of the '']'', adviser to Republican political campaigns, and adviser to ] at the State Department. Kagan calls himself a "liberal interventionist" rather than "neoconservative."<ref name=nytimes-kagan>{{citation |title=Events in Iraq Open Door for Interventionist Revival, Historian Says |first=Jason |last=Horowitz |work=New York Times |date=15 June 2014 |accessdate=9 October 2014 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/16/us/politics/historians-critique-of-obama-foreign-policy-is-brought-alive-by-events-in-iraq.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/27/usa |title=A neocon by any other name |last=Beaumont |first=Peter |date=April 26, 2008 |work=The Guardian }}</ref> | |||
* ] (former neoconservative) – Senior Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford, former-neoconservative, political scientist, political economist, and author. | |||
* ] – Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, columnist and author. | |||
* ] – Freedom Scholar chair at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, former US government consultant, author, columnist. | |||
* ] – Professor of sociology, columnist, author. | |||
* ] – ] Professor of Government at Harvard University, author. | |||
===Public intellectuals=== | |||
* ] (Deceased) – Publisher, journalist, columnist. | |||
* ] – Founder and editor of '']'', professor of political philosophy and American politics, political adviser. | |||
* ] – Editor-in-Chief of '']''. | |||
* ] – Editor-at-Large of '']'', presidential speech writer, author. | |||
* ] – International economics and business columnist, editor at '']'', Oxford fellow. | |||
* ] – Pulitzer Prize winner, columnist, physician. | |||
* ] – Journalist, Republican speech writer, columnist.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mann |first=James |authorlink=James Mann (writer) |title=Rise of the Vulcans |publisher=Penguin Books |edition=1st paperback |date=September 2004 |page=318 |isbn=0-14-303489-8}}</ref> | |||
* ] (Deceased) – Italian – U.S.] journalist and writer. | |||
* ] - Columnist and blogger for '']'' | |||
* ] - Resident scholar at the ] | |||
* ] - Senior online editor of '']'' | |||
* ] (former neoconservative) - Historian, writer, and political commentator. | |||
* ] - Executive editor of the news publication '']'' | |||
{{col-end}} | |||
==Related publications and institutions== | |||
{{col-begin}} | |||
{{col-break}} | |||
===Institutions=== | |||
* ]<ref>{{cite book|author=John Feffer|title=Power Trip: Unilateralism and Global Strategy After September 11|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=t8PQgoFju7UC&pg=PA231|year=2003|publisher=Seven Stories Press|page=231|isbn=978-1-60980-025-3}}</ref> | |||
* ]<ref>K. Dodds, K. and S. Elden, "Thinking Ahead: David Cameron, the Henry Jackson Society and BritishNeoConservatism," ''British Journal of Politics and International Relations'' (2008), 10(3): 347–63.</ref> | |||
* ]<ref name="Danny Cooper 2011 45">{{cite book|author=Danny Cooper|title=Neoconservatism and American Foreign Policy: A Critical Analysis|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=CNyZILpcSgkC&pg=PA45|year=2011|publisher=Taylor & Francis|page=45|isbn=978-0-203-84052-8}}</ref> | |||
* ]<ref name="Danny Cooper 2011 45"/> | |||
* ]<ref>{{cite book|author=Matthew Christopher Rhoades|title=Neoconservatism: Beliefs, the Bush Administration, and the Future|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=bnlVbs5HSicC&pg=PA14|year=2008|publisher=ProQuest|page=14|isbn=978-0-549-62046-4}}</ref> | |||
* ]<ref>{{cite book|author=Matthew Christopher Rhoades|title=Neoconservatism: Beliefs, the Bush Administration, and the Future|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=bnlVbs5HSicC&pg=PA110|year=2008|publisher=ProQuest|page=110|isbn=978-0-549-62046-4}}</ref> | |||
===Publications=== | |||
* '']'' | * '']'' | ||
* '']'' (neoconservative opinion pieces) | |||
* '']'' | |||
* '']'' | |||
* '']'' | |||
* '']'' | * '']'' | ||
* '']'' | |||
=== Defunct publications === | |||
{{col-end}} | |||
* '']'' (1965–2005) | |||
* '']'' (1995–2018) | |||
==See also== | == See also == | ||
{{ |
{{Portal|Conservatism}} | ||
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* ]<ref>{{cite book|editor1=Oleksii Stus |editor2=Dmytro Finberg |editor3=Leonid Sinchenko |title=Ukrainian Dissidents: An Anthology of Texts |quote= The tendency of neoconservatism (liberal conservatism) is most clearly represented by the literary ...|date=2021 |page=346 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-3-8382-1551-8 }}</ref> | |||
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==Notes== | == Notes == | ||
{{ |
{{reflist|30em}} | ||
==References== | == References == | ||
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* Albanese, Matteo. ''The Concept of War in Neoconservative Thinking'', IPOC, Milan, 2012. Translated by Nicolas Lewkowicz. {{ISBN|978-88-6772-000-2}} | |||
{{Div col|cols=3}} | |||
* {{Cite book| title = A New Pathway to World Peace: From American Empire to First Global Nation | |||
* Albanese, Matteo. "The Concept of War in Neoconservative Thinking", IPOC, Milan, 2012.Translated by Nicolas Lewkowicz. ISBN 978-8867720002 | |||
| last1 = Becker | first1 = Ted | |||
* Auster, Lawrence. "", FrontPageMag, March 19, 2004. Retrieved 16 September 2006. | |||
| last2 = Polkinghorn | first2 = Brian | |||
* ]. "", ''The American Conservative'', March 24, 2003. Retrieved 16 September 2006. | |||
| year = 2017 | |||
* Bush, George W., Gerhard Schroeder, et al., "", '']'', February 23, 2005. Retrieved 16 September 2006. | |||
| publisher = ] | |||
* Critchlow, Donald T. ''The conservative ascendancy: how the GOP right made political history'' (2nd ed. 2011) | |||
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tRM4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA150 | |||
* ]. ''Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush'', Little, Brown, 2004. ISBN 0-316-00023-X (hardback). Critical account of neo-conservatism in the administration of George W. Bush. | |||
| isbn = 978-1-532-61819-2 | |||
* ]. "", '']'', April 7, 2003. Retrieved 16 September 2006. | |||
}} | |||
* Gerson, Mark, ed. ''The Essential Neo-Conservative Reader'', Perseus, 1997. ISBN 0-201-15488-9 (paperback), ISBN 0-201-47968-0 (hardback). | |||
* ] "", ''The American Conservative'', 24 March 2003. Retrieved 16 September 2006. | |||
* Bush, George W., Gerhard Schroeder, et al., "", '']'', 23 February 2005. Retrieved 16 September 2006. | |||
* Critchlow, Donald T. ''The conservative ascendancy: how the GOP right made political history'' (2nd ed., 2011) | |||
* ]. '']'', Little, Brown, 2004. {{ISBN|0-316-00023-X}} (hardback). Critical account of neo-conservatism in the administration of George W. Bush. | |||
* ]. "", '']'', 7 April 2003. Retrieved 16 September 2006. | |||
* Gerson, Mark, ed. ''The Essential Neo-Conservative Reader'', Perseus, 1997. {{ISBN|0-201-15488-9}} (paperback), {{ISBN|0-201-47968-0}} (hardback). | |||
* Gerson, Mark. "", ''Policy Review'', Fall 1995, Number 74. Retrieved 16 September 2006. | * Gerson, Mark. "", ''Policy Review'', Fall 1995, Number 74. Retrieved 16 September 2006. | ||
* ]. ''Black Mass'', Allen Lane, 2007. ISBN |
* ]. ''Black Mass'', Allen Lane, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-7139-9915-0}}. | ||
* Hanson, Jim ''The Decline of the American Empire'', Praeger, 1993. ISBN |
* Hanson, Jim ''The Decline of the American Empire'', Praeger, 1993. {{ISBN|0-275-94480-8}}. | ||
* Halper, Stefan and Jonathan Clarke. ''America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order'', Cambridge University Press, 2004. ISBN |
* Halper, Stefan and Jonathan Clarke. ''America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order'', Cambridge University Press, 2004. {{ISBN|0-521-83834-7}}. | ||
* ], et al., ''Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign and Defense Policy''. Encounter Books, 2000. ISBN |
* ], et al., ''Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign and Defense Policy''. Encounter Books, 2000. {{ISBN|1-893554-16-3}}. | ||
* ]. ''Neo-Conservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea: Selected Essays 1949-1995'', New York: The Free Press, 1995. ISBN |
* ]. ''Neo-Conservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea: Selected Essays 1949-1995'', New York: The Free Press, 1995. {{ISBN|0-02-874021-1}} (10). {{ISBN|978-0-02-874021-8}} (13). (Hardcover ed.) Reprinted as ''Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea'', New York: Ivan R. Dee, 1999. {{ISBN|1-56663-228-5}} (10). (Paperback ed.) | ||
* |
* ]. "What Is a Neoconservative?", '']'', 19 January 1976. | ||
* ] y Antón Mellón, Joan, |
* ] y Antón Mellón, Joan, "Las persuasiones neoconservadoras: F. Fukuyama, S. P. Huntington, W. Kristol y R. Kagan", en Máiz, Ramón (comp.), ''Teorías políticas contemporáneas'', (2ªed.rev. y ampl.) Tirant lo Blanch, Valencia, 2009. {{ISBN|978-84-9876-463-5}}. | ||
* ], |
* ], "Cosmopolitismo y anticosmoplitismo en el neoconservadurismo: Fukuyama y Huntington", en Nuñez, Paloma y Espinosa, Javier (eds.), ''Filosofía y política en el siglo XXI. Europa y el nuevo orden cosmopolita'', Akal, Madrid, 2009. {{ISBN|978-84-460-2875-8}}. | ||
* Lasn, Kalle. "", ''Adbusters'', March/April 2004. Retrieved 16 September 2006. | * Lasn, Kalle. "", ''Adbusters'', March/April 2004. Retrieved 16 September 2006. | ||
* Lewkowicz, Nicolas. "", ''Democracy Chronicles'', |
* Lewkowicz, Nicolas. " {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508022438/https://democracychronicles.com/neoconservatism-and-the-propagation-of-democracy/ |date=8 May 2016 }}", ''Democracy Chronicles'', 11 February 2013. | ||
* {{cite journal|last=Lipset|first=Seymour| |
* {{cite journal|last=Lipset|first=Seymour|author-link=Seymour Martin Lipset|title=Neoconservatism: Myth and reality|journal=Society|date=4 July 1988|issn=0147-2011|pages=29–37|volume=25|doi=10.1007/BF02695739|issue=5|s2cid=144110677|url=https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/18451}} | ||
* Mann, James. ''Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet'', Viking, 2004. ISBN |
* Mann, James. ''Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet'', Viking, 2004. {{ISBN|0-670-03299-9}} (cloth). | ||
* {{cite |
* {{cite magazine|title=Trotsky's orphans: From Bolshevism to Reaganism|last=Massing|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Massing|magazine=The New Republic|pages=18–22|year=1987}} | ||
* Mascolo, Georg. |
* Mascolo, Georg. {{dead link|date=May 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Spiegel Online, 6 December 2005. Retrieved 16 September 2006. | ||
* Muravchik, Joshua. "Renegades", ''Commentary'', |
* Muravchik, Joshua. "Renegades", ''Commentary'', 1 October 2002. is available online, the article itself is not. | ||
* Muravchik, Joshua. "The Neoconservative Cabal", ''Commentary'', September 2003. is available online, the article itself is not. | * Muravchik, Joshua. "The Neoconservative Cabal", ''Commentary'', September 2003. is available online, the article itself is not. | ||
* Prueher, Joseph. , |
* Prueher, Joseph. , 11 April 2001. Reproduced on sinomania.com. Retrieved 16 September 2006. | ||
* ]. ''The Norman Podhoretz Reader''. New York: Free Press, 2004. ISBN |
* ]. ''The Norman Podhoretz Reader''. New York: Free Press, 2004. {{ISBN|0-7432-3661-0}}. | ||
* ]. ''Le Neoconservatisme est un humanisme''. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2005.ISBN |
* ]. ''Le Neoconservatisme est un humanisme''. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2005.{{ISBN|2-13-055016-9}}. | ||
* ]. ''La Puissance de la Liberté''. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2004.ISBN |
* ]. ''La Puissance de la Liberté''. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2004.{{ISBN|2-13-054293-X}}. | ||
* Ruppert, Michael C.. ''Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil'', New Society, 2004. ISBN |
* Ruppert, Michael C.. ''Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil'', New Society, 2004. {{ISBN|0-86571-540-8}}. | ||
* ], ''America the Virtuous: The Crisis of Democracy and the Quest for Empire'', Transaction, 2003. ISBN |
* ], ''America the Virtuous: The Crisis of Democracy and the Quest for Empire'', Transaction, 2003. {{ISBN|0-7658-0219-8}} (cloth). | ||
* ], ed. ''Neoconservatism'', Atlantic Books, 2004. | * ], ed. ''Neoconservatism'', Atlantic Books, 2004. | ||
* Smith, Grant F. ''Deadly Dogma: How Neoconservatives Broke the Law to Deceive America''. ISBN |
* Smith, Grant F. ''Deadly Dogma: How Neoconservatives Broke the Law to Deceive America''. {{ISBN|0-9764437-4-0}}. | ||
* ], et al. "", February |
* ], et al. "", 19 February 1998, online at IraqWatch.org. Retrieved 16 September 2006. | ||
* {{cite book|last=Steinfels|first=Peter| |
* {{cite book|last=Steinfels|first=Peter|author-link=Peter Steinfels|title=The neoconservatives: The men who are changing America's politics|url=https://archive.org/details/neoconservatives00stei|url-access=registration|location=New York|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=1979|isbn=978-0-671-22665-7}} | ||
* ]. ''Natural Right and History'', University of Chicago Press, 1999. ISBN |
* ]. ''Natural Right and History'', University of Chicago Press, 1999. {{ISBN|0-226-77694-8}}. | ||
* Strauss, Leo. ''The Rebirth of Classical Political Rationalism'', University of Chicago Press, 1989. ISBN |
* Strauss, Leo. ''The Rebirth of Classical Political Rationalism'', University of Chicago Press, 1989. {{ISBN|0-226-77715-4}}. | ||
* Tolson, Jay. "", '']'', January |
* Tolson, Jay. "", '']'', 13 January 2003. Retrieved 16 September 2006. | ||
* ]. ''The Politics of Truth''. Carroll & Graf, 2004. ISBN |
* ]. ''The Politics of Truth''. Carroll & Graf, 2004. {{ISBN|0-7867-1378-X}}. | ||
* ]. ''Plan of Attack'', Simon and Schuster, 2004. ISBN |
* ]. ''Plan of Attack'', Simon and Schuster, 2004. {{ISBN|0-7432-5547-X}}. | ||
{{ |
{{Refend}} | ||
==Further reading== | == Further reading == | ||
{{Refbegin|30em}} | |||
* Arin, Kubilay Yado: ''Think Tanks, the Brain Trusts of US Foreign Policy''. Wiesbaden: VS Springer 2013. | |||
* Arin, Kubilay Yado: ''Think Tanks: The Brain Trusts of US Foreign Policy''. Wiesbaden: VS Springer 2013. | |||
* Balint, Benjamin V. ''Running Commentary: The Contentious Magazine that Transformed the Jewish Left into the Neoconservative Right'' (2010) | |||
* Balint, Benjamin V. ''Running Commentary: The Contentious Magazine that Transformed the Jewish Left into the Neoconservative Right'' (2010). | |||
* Dorrien, Gary. ''The Neoconservative Mind''. ISBN 1-56639-019-2, n attack from the Left | |||
* Dorrien, Gary. ''The Neoconservative Mind''. {{ISBN|1-56639-019-2}}, n attack from the Left. | |||
* Ehrman, John. ''The Rise of Neoconservatism: Intellectual and Foreign Affairs 1945 – 1994'', Yale University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-300-06870-0, friendly analysis | |||
* |
* Ehrman, John. ''The Rise of Neoconservatism: Intellectual and Foreign Affairs 1945 – 1994'', Yale University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-300-06870-0}}. | ||
* Eisendrath, Craig R. and Melvin A. Goodman. ''Bush League Diplomacy: How the Neoconservatives are Putting The World at Risk'' (Prometheus Books, 2004), {{ISBN|1-59102-176-6}}. | |||
* ]. '''', Doubleday (2008) ISBN 0-385-51181-7 | |||
* Franczak, Michael. 2019. "."''Diplomatic History'' | |||
** Heilbrunn, Jacob. "5 Myths About Those Nefarious Neocons," | |||
* Friedman, Murray. ''The Neoconservative Revolution: Jewish Intellectuals and the Shaping of Public Policy''. Cambridge University Press, 2006. {{ISBN|0-521-54501-3}}. | |||
* Kristol, Irving. "". | |||
* ]."Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism." Metropolitan Books Henry Holt & Company, 2006.{{ISBN|978-0-8050-8323-1}}. | |||
* ]. "", '']'', April 9, 2003. | |||
* Heilbrunn, Jacob. ''They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons'', Doubleday (2008) {{ISBN|0-385-51181-7}}. | |||
* Vaïsse, Justin. ''Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement'' (Harvard U.P. 2010), translated from the French | |||
** Heilbrunn, Jacob. , ''The Washington Post'', 10 February 2008. | |||
* Kristol, Irving. . | |||
* ]. , '']'', 9 April 2003. | |||
* MacDonald, Kevin. , review of ''They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons'' by Jacob Heilbrunn. | |||
* Vaïsse, Justin. ''Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement'' (Harvard U.P. 2010), translated from the French. | |||
* McClelland, Mark, The unbridling of virtue: neoconservatism between the Cold War and the Iraq War. | |||
* Shavit, Ari, , Haaretz, 3 April 2003. | |||
* Singh, Robert. "Neoconservatism in the age of Obama." in Inderjeet Parmar, ed., ''Obama and the World'' (Routledge, 2014). 51–62. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190620042036/http://www.kropfpolisci.com/obama.foreign.policy.singh.pdf |date=20 June 2019 }} | |||
{{Refend}} | |||
===Identity=== | === Identity === | ||
* |
* , ''Christian Science Monitor'', 2003 | ||
* Rose, David, , ''Vanity Fair'', 2006 | |||
* Steigerwald, Bill. "" | |||
* Steigerwald, Bill. . | |||
* Stelzer, Irwin. "". The Times (London) | |||
* Lind, Michael, . | |||
* Selden, Zachary, "". Selden is director of the Defence and Security Committee of the ] Parliamentary Assembly. | |||
===Critiques=== | === Critiques === | ||
* Fukuyama, Francis. |
* Fukuyama, Francis. , ''The New York Times'', 2006. | ||
* Thompson, Bradley C. (with Yaron Brook). ''Neoconservatism. An Obituary for an Idea''. Boulder/London: Paradigm Publishers, 2010. ISBN |
* Thompson, Bradley C. (with Yaron Brook). ''Neoconservatism. An Obituary for an Idea''. Boulder/London: Paradigm Publishers, 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-59451-831-7}}. | ||
==External links== | ==External links== | ||
{{Wikiquote}} | |||
* ]. '']'', ]. . | |||
*{{Commons category-inline}} | |||
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* {{Britannica|1075556}} | |||
*], '']'', ]. . | |||
* by Justin Vaïsse | |||
* by Jim Lobe | |||
* by Maria Ryan | |||
* | |||
{{neoconservatism}} | |||
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Latest revision as of 20:32, 8 January 2025
Political movement "Neocon" redirects here. Not to be confused with Necon or Paleoconservatism. This article is about the political movement in the United States. For other regions, see Conservatism and Neoconservatism (disambiguation). For the furnishing trade fair known as NeoCon, see Merchandise Mart § Trade fairs.
Neoconservatism (colloquially neocon) is a political movement which began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist Democratic Party along with the growing New Left and counterculture of the 1960s. Neoconservatives typically advocate the unilateral promotion of democracy and interventionism in international relations together with a militaristic and realist philosophy of "peace through strength". They are known for espousing opposition to communism and radical politics.
Many adherents of neoconservatism became politically influential during Republican presidential administrations from the 1960s to the 2000s, peaking in influence during the presidency of George W. Bush, when they played a major role in promoting and planning the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Prominent neoconservatives in the Bush administration included Paul Wolfowitz, Elliott Abrams, Richard Perle, Paul Bremer, and Douglas Feith.
Although U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had not self-identified as neoconservatives, they worked closely alongside neoconservative officials in designing key aspects of the Bush administration's foreign policy; especially in their support for Israel, promotion of American influence in the Arab world and launching the war on terror. The Bush administration's domestic and foreign policies were heavily influenced by major ideologues affiliated with neoconservatism, such as Bernard Lewis, Lulu Schwartz, Richard and Daniel Pipes, David Horowitz, and Robert Kagan.
Critics of neoconservatism have used the term to describe foreign policy and war hawks who support aggressive militarism or neocolonialism. Historically speaking, the term neoconservative refers to Americans who moved from the anti-Stalinist left to conservatism during the 1960s and 1970s. The movement had its intellectual roots in the magazine Commentary, edited by Norman Podhoretz. They spoke out against the New Left, and in that way helped define the movement.
Terminology
The term neoconservative was popularized in the United States during 1973 by the socialist leader Michael Harrington, who used the term to define Daniel Bell, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Irving Kristol, whose ideologies differed from Harrington's. Earlier during 1973, he had described some of the same ideas in a brief contribution to a symposium on welfare sponsored by Commentary.
The neoconservative label was adopted by Irving Kristol in his 1979 article "Confessions of a True, Self-Confessed 'Neoconservative'". His ideas have been influential since the 1950s, when he co-founded and edited the magazine Encounter.
Another source was Norman Podhoretz, editor of the magazine Commentary, from 1960 to 1995. By 1982, Podhoretz was terming himself a neoconservative in The New York Times Magazine article titled "The Neoconservative Anguish over Reagan's Foreign Policy".
The term itself was the product of a rejection among formerly self-identified liberals of what they considered a growing leftward turn of the Democratic Party in the 1970s. Neoconservatives perceived in the new left liberalism an ideological effort to distance the Democratic Party and American liberalism from Cold War liberalism as it was espoused by former Presidents such as Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. After the Vietnam War, the anti-communist, internationalist and interventionist roots of this Cold War liberalism seemed increasingly brittle to the neoconservatives. As a consequence they migrated to the Republican Party and formed one pillar of the Reagan Coalition and of the conservative movement. Hence, they became Neo-conservatives.
History
Through the 1950s and early 1960s, the future neoconservatives had endorsed the civil rights movement, racial integration, and Martin Luther King Jr. From the 1950s to the 1960s, liberals generally endorsed military action in order to prevent a communist victory in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
Neoconservatism was initiated by liberals' repudiation of the Cold War and by the "New Politics" of the American New Left, which Norman Podhoretz said was too sympathetic to the counterculture and too alienated from the majority of the population, and by the repudiation of "anti-anticommunism" by liberals, which included substantial endorsement of Marxist–Leninist politics by the New Left during the late 1960s. Some neoconservatives were particularly alarmed by what they believed were the antisemitic sentiments of Black Power advocates. Irving Kristol edited the journal The Public Interest (1965–2005), featuring economists and political scientists, which emphasized ways that government planning in the liberal state had produced unintended harmful consequences. Some early neoconservative political figures were disillusioned Democratic politicians and intellectuals, such as Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who served in the Nixon and Ford administrations, and Jeane Kirkpatrick, who served as United States Ambassador to the United Nations in the Reagan administration. Some left-wing academics such as Frank Meyer and James Burnham eventually became associated with the conservative movement at this time.
A substantial number of neoconservatives were originally moderate socialists who were originally associated with the moderate wing of the Socialist Party of America (SP) and its successor party, the Social Democrats, USA (SDUSA). Max Shachtman, a former Trotskyist theorist who developed strong feelings of antipathy towards the New Left, had numerous devotees in the SDUSA with strong links to George Meany's AFL-CIO. Following Shachtman and Meany, this faction led the SP to oppose immediate withdrawal from the Vietnam War and oppose George McGovern in the Democratic primary race and, to some extent, the general election. They also chose to cease their own party-building and concentrated on working within the Democratic Party, eventually influencing it through the Democratic Leadership Council. Thus the Socialist Party dissolved in 1972, and the SDUSA emerged that year. (Most of the left-wing of the party, led by Michael Harrington, immediately abandoned the SDUSA.) SDUSA leaders associated with neoconservatism include Carl Gershman, Penn Kemble, Joshua Muravchik and Bayard Rustin.
Norman Podhoretz's magazine Commentary, originally a journal of liberalism, became a major publication for neoconservatives during the 1970s. Commentary published an article by Jeane Kirkpatrick, an early and prototypical neoconservative.
Rejecting the American New Left and McGovern's New Politics
As the policies of the New Left made the Democrats increasingly leftist, these neoconservative intellectuals became disillusioned with President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society domestic programs. The influential 1970 bestseller The Real Majority by Ben Wattenberg expressed that the "real majority" of the electorate endorsed economic interventionism but also social conservatism and that it could be disastrous for Democrats to adopt liberal positions on certain social and crime issues.
The neoconservatives rejected the countercultural New Left and what they considered anti-Americanism in the non-interventionism of the activism against the Vietnam War. After the anti-war faction took control of the party during 1972 and nominated George McGovern, the Democrats among the neoconservatives endorsed Washington Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson for his unsuccessful 1972 and 1976 campaigns for president. Among those who worked for Jackson were the incipient neoconservatives Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith, and Richard Perle. During the late 1970s, neoconservatives tended to endorse Ronald Reagan, the Republican who promised to confront Soviet expansionism. Neoconservatives organized in the American Enterprise Institute and The Heritage Foundation to counter the liberal establishment. Author Keith Preston named the successful effort on behalf of neoconservatives such as George Will and Irving Kristol to cancel Reagan's 1980 nomination of Mel Bradford, a Southern Paleoconservative academic whose regionalist focus and writings about Abraham Lincoln and Reconstruction alienated the more cosmopolitan and progress-oriented neoconservatives, to the leadership of the National Endowment for the Humanities in favor of longtime Democrat William Bennett as emblematic of the neoconservative movement establishing hegemony over mainstream American conservatism.
In another (2004) article, Michael Lind also wrote:
Neoconservatism ... originated in the 1970s as a movement of anti-Soviet liberals and social democrats in the tradition of Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Humphrey and Henry ('Scoop') Jackson, many of whom preferred to call themselves 'paleoliberals.' ... many 'paleoliberals' drifted back to the Democratic center ... Today's neocons are a shrunken remnant of the original broad neocon coalition. Nevertheless, the origins of their ideology on the left are still apparent. The fact that most of the younger neocons were never on the left is irrelevant; they are the intellectual (and, in the case of William Kristol and John Podhoretz, the literal) heirs of older ex-leftists.
Leo Strauss and his students
C. Bradley Thompson, a professor at Clemson University, claims that most influential neoconservatives refer explicitly to the theoretical ideas in the philosophy of Leo Strauss (1899–1973), although there are several writers who claim that in doing so they may draw upon meaning that Strauss himself did not endorse. Eugene Sheppard notes: "Much scholarship tends to understand Strauss as an inspirational founder of American neoconservatism". Strauss was a refugee from Nazi Germany who taught at the New School for Social Research in New York (1938–1948) and the University of Chicago (1949–1969).
Strauss asserted that "the crisis of the West consists in the West's having become uncertain of its purpose". His solution was a restoration of the vital ideas and faith that in the past had sustained the moral purpose of the West. The Greek classics (classical republican and modern republican), political philosophy and the Judeo-Christian heritage are the essentials of the Great Tradition in Strauss's work. Strauss emphasized the spirit of the Greek classics and Thomas G. West (1991) argues that for Strauss the American Founding Fathers were correct in their understanding of the classics in their principles of justice.
For Strauss, political community is defined by convictions about justice and happiness rather than by sovereignty and force. A classical liberal, he repudiated the philosophy of John Locke as a bridge to 20th-century historicism and nihilism and instead defended liberal democracy as closer to the spirit of the classics than other modern regimes. For Strauss, the American awareness of ineradicable evil in human nature and hence the need for morality, was a beneficial outgrowth of the pre-modern Western tradition. O'Neill (2009) notes that Strauss wrote little about American topics, but his students wrote a great deal and that Strauss's influence caused his students to reject historicism and positivism as morally relativist positions. They instead promoted a so-called Aristotelian perspective on America that produced a qualified defense of its liberal constitutionalism. Strauss's emphasis on moral clarity led the Straussians to develop an approach to international relations that Catherine and Michael Zuckert (2008) call Straussian Wilsonianism (or Straussian idealism), the defense of liberal democracy in the face of its vulnerability.
Strauss influenced The Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, William Bennett, Newt Gingrich, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, as well as Paul Wolfowitz.
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Main article: Jeane KirkpatrickA theory of neoconservative foreign policy during the final years of the Cold War was articulated by Jeane Kirkpatrick in "Dictatorships and Double Standards", published in Commentary Magazine during November 1979. Kirkpatrick criticized the foreign policy of Jimmy Carter, which endorsed détente with the Soviet Union. She later served the Reagan Administration as Ambassador to the United Nations.
Skepticism towards democracy promotion
In "Dictatorships and Double Standards", Kirkpatrick distinguished between authoritarian regimes and the totalitarian regimes such as the Soviet Union. She suggested that in some countries democracy was not tenable and the United States had a choice between endorsing authoritarian governments, which might evolve into democracies, or Marxist–Leninist regimes, which she argued had never been ended once they achieved totalitarian control. In such tragic circumstances, she argued that allying with authoritarian governments might be prudent. Kirkpatrick argued that by demanding rapid liberalization in traditionally autocratic countries, the Carter administration had delivered those countries to Marxist–Leninists that were even more repressive. She further accused the Carter administration of a "double standard" and of never having applied its rhetoric on the necessity of liberalization to communist governments. The essay compares traditional autocracies and Communist regimes:
do not disturb the habitual rhythms of work and leisure, habitual places of residence, habitual patterns of family and personal relations. Because the miseries of traditional life are familiar, they are bearable to ordinary people who, growing up in the society, learn to cope.
claim jurisdiction over the whole life of the society and make demands for change that so violate internalized values and habits that inhabitants flee by the tens of thousands.
Kirkpatrick concluded that while the United States should encourage liberalization and democracy in autocratic countries, it should not do so when the government risks violent overthrow and should expect gradual change rather than immediate transformation. She wrote: "No idea holds greater sway in the mind of educated Americans than the belief that it is possible to democratize governments, anytime and anywhere, under any circumstances ... Decades, if not centuries, are normally required for people to acquire the necessary disciplines and habits. In Britain, the road took seven centuries to traverse. ... The speed with which armies collapse, bureaucracies abdicate, and social structures dissolve once the autocrat is removed frequently surprises American policymakers".
1990s
During the 1990s, neoconservatives were once again opposed to the foreign policy establishment, both during the Republican Administration of President George H. W. Bush and that of his Democratic successor, President Bill Clinton. Many critics charged that the neoconservatives lost their influence as a result of the end of the Soviet Union.
After the decision of George H. W. Bush to leave Saddam Hussein in power after the first Iraq War during 1991, many neoconservatives considered this policy and the decision not to endorse indigenous dissident groups such as the Kurds and Shiites in their 1991–1992 resistance to Hussein as a betrayal of democratic principles.
Some of those same targets of criticism would later become fierce advocates of neoconservative policies. During 1992, referring to the first Iraq War, then United States Secretary of Defense and future Vice President Richard Cheney said:
I would guess if we had gone in there, I would still have forces in Baghdad today. We'd be running the country. We would not have been able to get everybody out and bring everybody home. And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not that damned many. So, I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq.
A key neoconservative policy-forming document, A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm (commonly known as the "Clean Break" report) was published in 1996 by a study group of American-Jewish neoconservative strategists led by Richard Perle on the behest of newly-elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The report called for a new, more aggressive Middle East policy on the part of the United States in defense of the interests of Israel, including the removal of Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and the containment of Syria through a series of proxy wars, the outright rejection of any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that would include a Palestinian state, and an alliance between Israel, Turkey and Jordan against Iraq, Syria and Iran. Former United States Assistant Secretary of Defense and leading neoconservative Richard Perle was the "Study Group Leader", but the final report included ideas from fellow neoconservatives, pro-Israel right-wingers and affiliates of Netanyahu's Likud party, such as Douglas Feith, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks Jr., Jonathan Torop, David Wurmser, Meyrav Wurmser, and IASPS president Robert Loewenberg.
Within a few years of the Gulf War in Iraq, many neoconservatives were endorsing the ousting of Saddam Hussein. On 19 February 1998, an open letter to President Clinton was published, signed by dozens of pundits, many identified with neoconservatism and later related groups such as the Project for the New American Century, urging decisive action to remove Saddam from power.
Neoconservatives were also members of the so-called "Blue Team", which argued for a confrontational policy toward the People's Republic of China (the communist government of mainland China) and for strong military and diplomatic endorsement of the Republic of China (also known as Taiwan), as they believed that China will be a threat to the United States in the future.
2000s
Administration of George W. Bush
The Bush campaign and the early Bush administration did not exhibit strong endorsement of neoconservative principles. As a presidential candidate, Bush had argued for a restrained foreign policy, stating his opposition to the idea of nation-building. Also early in the administration, some neoconservatives criticized Bush's administration as insufficiently supportive of Israel and suggested Bush's foreign policies were not substantially different from those of President Clinton.
Bush's policies changed dramatically immediately after the 11 September 2001 attacks.
During Bush's State of the Union speech of January 2002, he named Iraq, Iran and North Korea as states that "constitute an axis of evil" and "pose a grave and growing danger". Bush suggested the possibility of preemptive war: "I will not wait on events, while dangers gather. I will not stand by, as peril draws closer and closer. The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons".
Some major defense and national-security persons have been quite critical of what they believed was a neoconservative influence in getting the United States to go to war against Iraq.
Former Nebraska Republican U.S. senator and Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, who has been critical of the Bush administration's adoption of neoconservative ideology, in his book America: Our Next Chapter wrote:
So why did we invade Iraq? I believe it was the triumph of the so-called neo-conservative ideology, as well as Bush administration arrogance and incompetence that took America into this war of choice. ... They obviously made a convincing case to a president with very limited national security and foreign policy experience, who keenly felt the burden of leading the nation in the wake of the deadliest terrorist attack ever on American soil.
Bush Doctrine
The Bush Doctrine of preemptive war was stated explicitly in the National Security Council (NSC) text "National Security Strategy of the United States". published 20 September 2002: "We must deter and defend against the threat before it is unleashed ... even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy's attack. ... The United States will, if necessary, act preemptively".
The choice not to use the word "preventive" in the 2002 National Security Strategy and instead use the word "preemptive" was largely in anticipation of the widely perceived illegality of preventive attacks in international law via both Charter Law and Customary Law. In this context, disputes over the non-aggression principle in domestic and foreign policy, especially given the doctrine of preemption, alternatively impede and facilitate studies of the impact of libertarian precepts on neo-conservatism.
Policy analysts noted that the Bush Doctrine as stated in the 2002 NSC document had a strong resemblance to recommendations presented originally in a controversial Defense Planning Guidance draft written during 1992 by Paul Wolfowitz, during the first Bush administration.
The Bush Doctrine was greeted with accolades by many neoconservatives. When asked whether he agreed with the Bush Doctrine, Max Boot said he did and that "I think exactly right to say we can't sit back and wait for the next terrorist strike on Manhattan. We have to go out and stop the terrorists overseas. We have to play the role of the global policeman. ... But I also argue that we ought to go further". Discussing the significance of the Bush Doctrine, neoconservative writer Bill Kristol claimed: "The world is a mess. And, I think, it's very much to Bush's credit that he's gotten serious about dealing with it. ... The danger is not that we're going to do too much. The danger is that we're going to do too little".
2008 presidential election and aftermath
John McCain, who was the Republican candidate for the 2008 United States presidential election, endorsed continuing the second Iraq War, "the issue that is most clearly identified with the neoconservatives". The New York Times reported further that his foreign policy views combined elements of neoconservatism and the main competing conservative opinion, pragmatism, also known as realism:
Among are several prominent neoconservatives, including Robert Kagan ... Max Boot... 'It may be too strong a term to say a fight is going on over John McCain's soul,' said Lawrence Eagleburger ... who is a member of the pragmatist camp, ... said, "there is no question that a lot of my far right friends have now decided that since you can't beat him, let's persuade him to slide over as best we can on these critical issues.
Barack Obama campaigned for the Democratic nomination during 2008 by attacking his opponents, especially Hillary Clinton, for originally endorsing Bush's Iraq-war policies. Obama maintained a selection of prominent military officials from the Bush administration including Robert Gates (Bush's Defense Secretary) and David Petraeus (Bush's ranking general in Iraq). Neoconservative politician Victoria Nuland, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO under Bush, was made United States Under Secretary of State by Obama.
2010s and 2020s
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By 2010, U.S. forces had switched from combat to a training role in Iraq and they left in 2011. The neocons had little influence in the Obama White House, and neo-conservatives have lost much influence in the Republican party since the rise of the Tea Party Movement.
Several neoconservatives played a major role in the Stop Trump movement in 2016, in opposition to the Republican presidential candidacy of Donald Trump, due to his criticism of interventionist foreign policies, as well as their perception of him as an "authoritarian" figure. After Trump took office, some neoconservatives joined his administration, such as John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, Elliott Abrams and Nadia Schadlow. Neoconservatives have supported the Trump administration's hawkish approach towards Iran and Venezuela, while opposing the administration's withdrawal of troops from Syria and diplomatic outreach to North Korea. Although neoconservatives have served in the Trump administration, they have been observed to have been slowly overtaken by the nascent populist and national conservative movements, and to have struggled to adapt to a changing geopolitical atmosphere. The Lincoln Project, a political action committee consisting of current and former Republicans with the purpose of defeating Trump in the 2020 United States presidential election and Republican Senate candidates in the 2020 United States Senate elections, has been described as being primarily made of neoconservative activists seeking to return the Republican party to Bush-era ideology. Although Trump was not reelected and the Republicans failed to retain a majority in the Senate, surprising success in the 2020 United States House of Representatives elections and internal conflicts led to renewed questions about the strength of neoconservatism.
In the Biden administration, neoconservative Victoria Nuland retained the portfolio of Under Secretary of State she had held under Obama. President Joe Biden's top diplomat for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, was also a neocon and a former Bush administration official.
Evolution of opinions
Usage and general views
During the early 1970s, socialist Michael Harrington was one of the first to use "neoconservative" in its modern meaning. He characterized neoconservatives as former leftists – whom he derided as "socialists for Nixon" – who had become more conservative. These people tended to remain endorsers of social democracy, but distinguished themselves by allying with the Nixon administration with respect to foreign policy, especially by their endorsement of the Vietnam War and opposition to the Soviet Union. They still endorsed the welfare state, but not necessarily in its contemporary form.
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Booknotes interview with Irving Kristol on Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea, 1995, C-SPAN |
Irving Kristol remarked that a neoconservative is a "liberal mugged by reality", one who became more conservative after seeing the results of liberal policies. Kristol also distinguished three specific aspects of neoconservatism from previous types of conservatism: neo-conservatives had a forward-looking attitude from their liberal heritage, rather than the reactionary and dour attitude of previous conservatives; they had a meliorative attitude, proposing alternate reforms rather than simply attacking social liberal reforms; and they took philosophical ideas and ideologies very seriously.
During January 2009, at the end of President George W. Bush's second term in office, Jonathan Clarke, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and prominent critic of Neoconservatism, proposed the following as the "main characteristics of neoconservatism": "a tendency to see the world in binary good/evil terms", a "low tolerance for diplomacy", a "readiness to use military force", an "emphasis on US unilateral action", a "disdain for multilateral organizations" and a "focus on the Middle East".
Opinions concerning foreign policy
In foreign policy, the neoconservatives' main concern is to prevent the development of a new rival. Defense Planning Guidance, a document prepared during 1992 by Under Secretary for Defense for Policy Paul Wolfowitz, is regarded by Distinguished Professor of the Humanities John McGowan at the University of North Carolina as the "quintessential statement of neoconservative thought". The report says:
Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power.
According to Lead Editor of e-International Relations Stephen McGlinchey: "Neo-conservatism is something of a chimera in modern politics. For its opponents it is a distinct political ideology that emphasizes the blending of military power with Wilsonian idealism, yet for its supporters it is more of a 'persuasion' that individuals of many types drift into and out of. Regardless of which is more correct, it is now widely accepted that the neo-conservative impulse has been visible in modern American foreign policy and that it has left a distinct impact".
Neoconservatism first developed during the late 1960s as an effort to oppose the radical cultural changes occurring within the United States. Irving Kristol wrote: "If there is any one thing that neoconservatives are unanimous about, it is their dislike of the counterculture". Norman Podhoretz agreed: "Revulsion against the counterculture accounted for more converts to neoconservatism than any other single factor". Neoconservatives began to emphasize foreign issues during the mid-1970s.
In 1979, an early study by liberal Peter Steinfels concentrated on the ideas of Irving Kristol, Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Daniel Bell. He noted that the stress on foreign affairs "emerged after the New Left and the counterculture had dissolved as convincing foils for neoconservatism ... The essential source of their anxiety is not military or geopolitical or to be found overseas at all; it is domestic and cultural and ideological".
Neoconservative foreign policy is a descendant of so-called Wilsonian idealism. Neoconservatives endorse democracy promotion by the U.S. and other democracies, based on the conviction that natural rights are both universal and transcendent in nature. They criticized the United Nations and détente with the Soviet Union. On domestic policy, they endorse reductions in the welfare state, like European and Canadian conservatives. According to Norman Podhoretz, "'the neo-conservatives dissociated themselves from the wholesale opposition to the welfare state which had marked American conservatism since the days of the New Deal' and ... while neoconservatives supported 'setting certain limits' to the welfare state, those limits did not involve 'issues of principle, such as the legitimate size and role of the central government in the American constitutional order' but were to be 'determined by practical considerations'".
In April 2006, Robert Kagan wrote in The Washington Post that Russia and China may be the greatest "challenge liberalism faces today":
The main protagonists on the side of autocracy will not be the petty dictatorships of the Middle East theoretically targeted by the Bush doctrine. They will be the two great autocratic powers, China and Russia, which pose an old challenge not envisioned within the new 'war on terror' paradigm. ... Their reactions to the 'color revolutions' in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan were hostile and suspicious, and understandably so. ... Might not the successful liberalization of Ukraine, urged and supported by the Western democracies, be but the prelude to the incorporation of that nation into NATO and the European Union – in short, the expansion of Western liberal hegemony?
Trying to describe the evolution within the neoconservative school of thought is bedeviled by the fact that a coherent version of Neoconservatism is difficult to distill from the various diverging voices who are nevertheless considered to be neoconservative. On the one hand were individuals such as former Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick who embodied views that were hawkish yet still fundamentally in line with Realpolitik. The more institutionalized neoconservatism that exerted influence through think tanks, the media and government officials, rejected Realpolitik and thus the Kirkpatrick Doctrine. This rejection became an impetus to push for active US support for democratic transitions in various autocratic nations.
In the 1990s leading thinkers of this modern strand of the neoconservative school of thought, Robert Kagan and Bill Kristol, published an essay in which they lay out the basic tenants of what they call a Neo-Reaganite foreign policy. In it they reject a "return to normalcy" after the end of the Cold War and argue that the United States should instead double down on defending and extending the liberal International order. They trace the origin of their approach to foreign policy back to the foundation of the United States as a revolutionary, liberal capitalist republic. As opposed to advocates of Realpolitik, they argue that domestic politics and foreign policies are inextricably linked making it natural for any nation to be influenced by ideology, ideals and concepts of morality in their respective international conduct. Hence, this archetypical neoconservative position attempts to overcome the dichotomy of pragmatism and idealism emphasizing instead that a values-driven foreign policy is not just consistent with American historical tradition but that it is in the enlightened self-interest of the United States.
Views on economics
While neoconservatism is concerned primarily with foreign policy, there is also some discussion of internal economic policies. Neoconservatism generally endorses free markets and capitalism, favoring supply-side economics, but it has several disagreements with classical liberalism and fiscal conservatism. Irving Kristol states that neocons are more relaxed about budget deficits and tend to reject the Hayekian notion that the growth of government influence on society and public welfare is "the road to serfdom". Indeed, to safeguard democracy, government intervention and budget deficits may sometimes be necessary, Kristol argues. After the so-called "reconciliation with capitalism", self-identified "neoconservatives" frequently favored a reduced welfare state, but not its elimination.
Neoconservative ideology stresses that while free markets do provide material goods in an efficient way, they lack the moral guidance human beings need to fulfill their needs. They say that morality can be found only in tradition and that markets do pose questions that cannot be solved solely by economics, arguing: "So, as the economy only makes up part of our lives, it must not be allowed to take over and entirely dictate to our society". Critics consider neoconservatism a bellicose and "heroic" ideology opposed to "mercantile" and "bourgeois" virtues and therefore "a variant of anti-economic thought". Political scientist Zeev Sternhell states: "Neoconservatism has succeeded in convincing the great majority of Americans that the main questions that concern a society are not economic, and that social questions are really moral questions".
Friction with other conservatives
Many conservatives oppose neoconservative policies and have critical views on it. Disputes over the non-aggression principle in domestic and foreign policy, especially given the doctrine of preemption, can impede (and facilitate) studies of the impact of libertarian precepts on neo-conservatism, but that of course didn't, and still doesn't, stop pundits from publishing appraisals. For example, Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke (a libertarian based at Cato), in their 2004 book on neoconservatism, America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order, characterized the neoconservatives at that time as uniting around three common themes:
- A belief deriving from religious conviction that the human condition is defined as a choice between good and evil and that the true measure of political character is to be found in the willingness by the former (themselves) to confront the latter.
- An assertion that the fundamental determinant of the relationship between states rests on military power and the willingness to use it.
- A primary focus on the Middle East and global Islam as the principal theater for American overseas interests.
In putting these themes into practice, neo-conservatives:
- Analyze international issues in black-and-white, absolute moral categories. They are fortified by a conviction that they alone hold the moral high ground and argue that disagreement is tantamount to defeatism.
- Focus on the "unipolar" power of the United States, seeing the use of military force as the first, not the last, option of foreign policy. They repudiate the "lessons of Vietnam", which they interpret as undermining American will toward the use of force, and embrace the "lessons of Munich", interpreted as establishing the virtues of preemptive military action.
- Disdain conventional diplomatic agencies such as the State Department and conventional country-specific, realist, and pragmatic, analysis (see shoot first and ask questions later). They are hostile toward nonmilitary multilateral institutions and instinctively antagonistic toward international treaties and agreements. "Global unilateralism" is their watchword. They are fortified by international criticism, believing that it confirms American virtue.
- Look to the Reagan administration as the exemplar of all these virtues and seek to establish their version of Reagan's legacy as the Republican and national orthodoxy.
Responding to a question about neoconservatives in 2004, William F. Buckley Jr. said: "I think those I know, which is most of them, are bright, informed and idealistic, but that they simply overrate the reach of U.S. power and influence".
Friction with paleoconservatism
Main article: Neoconservatism and paleoconservatismStarting during the 1980s, disputes concerning Israel and public policy contributed to a conflict with paleoconservatives. Pat Buchanan terms neoconservatism "a globalist, interventionist, open borders ideology". Paul Gottfried has written that the neocons' call for "permanent revolution" exists independently of their beliefs about Israel, characterizing the neoconservatives as "ranters out of a Dostoyevskian novel, who are out to practice permanent revolution courtesy of the U.S. government" and questioning how anyone could mistake them for conservatives.
What make neocons most dangerous are not their isolated ghetto hang-ups, like hating Germans and Southern whites and calling everyone and his cousin an anti-Semite, but the leftist revolutionary fury they express.
He has also argued that domestic equality and the exportability of democracy are points of contention between them.
Paul Craig Roberts, United States Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during the Reagan administration and associated with paleoconservatism stated in 2003 that "there is nothing conservative about neoconservatives. Neocons hide behind 'conservative' but they are in fact Jacobins. Jacobins were the 18th century French revolutionaries whose intention to remake Europe in revolutionary France's image launched the Napoleonic Wars".
Trotskyism allegation
Critics have argued that since the founders of neo-conservatism included ex-Trotskyists, Trotskyist traits continue to characterize neo-conservative ideologies and practices. During the Reagan administration, the charge was made that the foreign policy of the Reagan administration was being managed by ex-Trotskyists. This claim was cited by Lipset (1988, p. 34), who was a neoconservative and former Trotskyist himself. This "Trotskyist" charge was repeated and widened by journalist Michael Lind during 2003 to assert a takeover of the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration by former Trotskyists; Lind's "amalgamation of the defense intellectuals with the traditions and theories of 'the largely Jewish-American Trotskyist movement' " was criticized during 2003 by University of Michigan professor Alan M. Wald, who had discussed Trotskyism in his history of "The New York Intellectuals".
The charge that neoconservativism is related to Leninism has also been made by Francis Fukuyama. He argued that both believe in the "existence of a long-term process of social evolution", though neoconservatives seek to establish liberal democracy instead of communism. He wrote that neoconservatives "believed that history can be pushed along with the right application of power and will. Leninism was a tragedy in its Bolshevik version, and it has returned as farce when practiced by the United States. Neoconservatism, as both a political symbol and a body of thought, has evolved into something I can no longer support". However, these comparisons ignore anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist positions central to Leninism, which run contradictory to core neoconservative beliefs.
Criticism
Critics of neoconservatism take issue with neoconservatives' support for interventionistic foreign policy. Critics from the left take issue with what they characterize as unilateralism and lack of concern with international consensus through organizations such as the United Nations.
Critics from both the left and right have assailed neoconservatives for the role Israel plays in their policies on the Middle East.
Neoconservatives respond by describing their shared opinion as a belief that national security is best attained by actively promoting freedom and democracy abroad as in the democratic peace theory through the endorsement of democracy, foreign aid and in certain cases military intervention. This is different from the traditional conservative tendency to endorse friendly regimes in matters of trade and anti-communism even at the expense of undermining existing democratic systems.
In a column on The New York Times named "Years of Shame" commemorating the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Paul Krugman criticized them for causing a supposedly entirely unrelated war.
Adherence to conservatism
Former Republican Congressman Ron Paul (now a Libertarian politician) has been a longtime critic of neoconservativism as an attack on freedom and the Constitution, including an extensive speech on the House floor addressing neoconservative beginnings and how neoconservatism is neither new nor conservative.
Imperialism and secrecy
See also: Criticism of United States foreign policyJohn McGowan, professor of humanities at the University of North Carolina, states after an extensive review of neoconservative literature and theory that neoconservatives are attempting to build an American Empire, seen as successor to the British Empire, its goal being to perpetuate a "Pax Americana". As imperialism is largely considered unacceptable by the American media, neoconservatives do not articulate their ideas and goals in a frank manner in public discourse. McGowan states:
Frank neoconservatives like Robert Kaplan and Niall Ferguson recognize that they are proposing imperialism as the alternative to liberal internationalism. Yet both Kaplan and Ferguson also understand that imperialism runs so counter to American's liberal tradition that it must ... remain a foreign policy that dare not speak its name ... While Ferguson, the Brit, laments that Americans cannot just openly shoulder the white man's burden, Kaplan the American, tells us that "only through stealth and anxious foresight" can the United States continue to pursue the "imperial reality already dominates our foreign policy", but must be disavowed in light of "our anti-imperial traditions, and ... the fact that imperialism is delegitimized in public discourse"... The Bush administration, justifying all of its actions by an appeal to "national security", has kept as many of those actions as it can secret and has scorned all limitations to executive power by other branches of government or international law.
Notable people associated with neoconservatism
The list includes public people identified as personally neoconservative at an important time or a high official with numerous neoconservative advisers, such as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
Politicians
- George W. Bush – 43rd U.S. President, 46th U.S. Governor of Texas
- Jeb Bush – 43rd U.S. Governor of Florida, 2016 Republican presidential candidate
- Dick Cheney – 46th U.S. Vice President
- Donald Rumsfeld – former U.S. Secretary of Defense
- Henry "Scoop" Jackson – former U.S. Senator from Washington
- Joe Lieberman – former U.S. Senator from Connecticut, 2000 Democratic vice-presidential nominee
- John McCain – former U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from Arizona, 2000 Republican presidential candidate, 2008 Republican presidential nominee
- Marco Rubio
- Mike Gallagher
- Mike Pompeo – former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and 70th United States secretary of state
- Asa Hutchinson – 46th Governor of Arkansas from 2015 to 2023
- Nikki Haley – 29th U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, 116th U.S. Governor of South Carolina, 2024 Republican presidential candidate
Government officials
- John P. Walters – former U.S. government official, current President and Chief Executive Officer of Hudson Institute
- Nadia Schadlow – academic and defense-related government officer
- Elliot Abrams – foreign policy advisor
- Richard Perle – former Assistant Secretary of Defense and lobbyist
- John R. Bolton
- Kenneth Adelman – former Director of Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
- William Bennett – former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, former Director of the National Drug Control Policy and former U.S. Secretary of Education
- Eliot A. Cohen – former State Department Counselor, now Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University
- Eric S. Edelman – former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
- Evelyn Farkas – Executive Director of the McCain Institute, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia
- Douglas J. Feith – former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
- Jeane Kirkpatrick – former Ambassador to the United Nations under Ronald Reagan, influenced by traditional realist thinking
- David J. Kramer – Executive Director of the George W. Bush Institute, former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
- Bill Kristol – former Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States, co-founder and former editor of The Weekly Standard, professor of political philosophy and American politics and political adviser
- Scooter Libby – former Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States
- Victoria Nuland – former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
- Condoleezza Rice
- Randy Scheunemann – foreign policy advisor and lobbyist
- Kurt Volker – former U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO
- Paul Wolfowitz – former State and Defense Department official
- R. James Woolsey Jr. – former Undersecretary of the Navy, former Director of Central Intelligence, green energy lobbyist
Public figures
- Fred Barnes – co-founder and former executive editor of The Weekly Standard
- Max Boot – author, consultant, editorialist, lecturer, and military historian; formerly, publicly distanced himself and renounced Neoconservatism
- David Brooks – columnist
- Midge Decter – journalist, author †
- Lulu Schwartz - American journalist, author and columnist who held a senior policy analyst role at Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a neo-conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.
- Niall Ferguson
- David Frum – journalist, Republican speechwriter and columnist
- Reuel Marc Gerecht – writer, political analyst and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
- Jonah Goldberg – founding editor of The Dispatch
- David Horowitz
- Bruce P. Jackson – activist, former U.S. military intelligence officer
- Donald Kagan – Sterling Professor of Classics and History at Yale University †.
- Frederick Kagan – historian, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute
- Robert Kagan – senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, scholar of U.S. foreign policy, founder of the Yale Political Monthly, adviser to Republican political campaigns and one of 25 members of an advisory board to Hillary Clinton at the State Department (Kagan calls himself a "liberal interventionist" rather than "neoconservative")
- Charles Krauthammer – Pulitzer Prize winner, columnist and psychiatrist †
- Irving Kristol – publisher, journalist and columnist †
- Eli Lake – journalist and columnist
- Michael Ledeen – historian, foreign policy analyst, scholar at the American Enterprise Institute
- Clifford May – founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
- Joshua Muravchik - political scholar
- Douglas Murray
- Michael Pillsbury
- Daniel Pipes
- Richard Pipes
- Danielle Pletka – American Enterprise Institute vice president
- John Podhoretz – editor of Commentary
- Norman Podhoretz – editor-in-chief of Commentary
- Yuval Levin – founding editor of National Affairs (2009–present) and director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
- Michael Rubin – resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute
- Gary Schmitt – resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute
- Ben Shapiro – political commentator, public speaker, author, lawyer, founder and editor emeritus of The Daily Wire.
- Bret Stephens – journalist and columnist for The New York Times
- Irwin Stelzer – economist and writer
- Ruth Wisse
Related publications and institutions
Institutions
- American Enterprise Institute
- Foundation for Defense of Democracies
- Henry Jackson Society
- Hudson Institute
- Project for the New American Century
Publications
- Commentary
- National Review (neoconservative opinion pieces)
- The Washington Free Beacon
- The Bulwark
Defunct publications
- The Public Interest (1965–2005)
- The Weekly Standard (1995–2018)
See also
- British neoconservatism
- Criticism of Islamism
- Democratic peace theory
- Factions in the Republican Party (United States)
- Globalization
- Intellectual dark web
- Interventionism (politics)
- Jewish conservatism
- Liberal conservatism
- Liberal hawk
- Liberal internationalism
- Neoconservatism and paleoconservatism
- Neoconservatism in Japan
- Neoconservatism in the Czech Republic
- New Conservatism (China)
- Neoliberalism
- Neo-libertarianism
- New Right in the United States
- Paleoconservatism
- Project for a New American Century
- Team B
- Tory socialism
- Trotskyism
- United States militarism
- Views on military action against Iran
Notes
- Dagger, Richard. "Neoconservatism". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 31 May 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
- "Neoconservative". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Archived from the original on 25 September 2021. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
- Record, Jeffrey (2010). Wanting War: Why the Bush Administration Invaded Iraq. Potomac Books, Inc. pp. 47–50. ISBN 978-1-59797-590-2. Archived from the original on 23 January 2023. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
- Abrams, Nathan (2010). "Introduction". Norman Podhoretz and Commentary Magazine: The Rise and Fall of the Neocons. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-4411-0968-2.
- Vaïsse, Justin (2010). Neoconservatism: The biography of a movement. Harvard University Press. pp. 6–11.
- Balint, Benjamin (2010). "Running Commentary: The Contentious Magazine that Transformed the Jewish Left Into the Neoconservative Right". PublicAffairs.
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The tendency of neoconservatism (liberal conservatism) is most clearly represented by the literary ...
References
- Albanese, Matteo. The Concept of War in Neoconservative Thinking, IPOC, Milan, 2012. Translated by Nicolas Lewkowicz. ISBN 978-88-6772-000-2
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Further reading
- Arin, Kubilay Yado: Think Tanks: The Brain Trusts of US Foreign Policy. Wiesbaden: VS Springer 2013.
- Balint, Benjamin V. Running Commentary: The Contentious Magazine that Transformed the Jewish Left into the Neoconservative Right (2010).
- Dorrien, Gary. The Neoconservative Mind. ISBN 1-56639-019-2, n attack from the Left.
- Ehrman, John. The Rise of Neoconservatism: Intellectual and Foreign Affairs 1945 – 1994, Yale University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-300-06870-0.
- Eisendrath, Craig R. and Melvin A. Goodman. Bush League Diplomacy: How the Neoconservatives are Putting The World at Risk (Prometheus Books, 2004), ISBN 1-59102-176-6.
- Franczak, Michael. 2019. "Losing the Battle, Winning the War: Neoconservatives versus the New International Economic Order, 1974–82."Diplomatic History
- Friedman, Murray. The Neoconservative Revolution: Jewish Intellectuals and the Shaping of Public Policy. Cambridge University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-521-54501-3.
- Grandin, Greg."Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism." Metropolitan Books Henry Holt & Company, 2006.ISBN 978-0-8050-8323-1.
- Heilbrunn, Jacob. They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons, Doubleday (2008) ISBN 0-385-51181-7.
- Heilbrunn, Jacob. "5 Myths About Those Nefarious Neocons", The Washington Post, 10 February 2008.
- Kristol, Irving. "The Neoconservative Persuasion".
- Lind, Michael. "How Neoconservatives Conquered Washington", Salon, 9 April 2003.
- MacDonald, Kevin. "The Neoconservative Mind", review of They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons by Jacob Heilbrunn.
- Vaïsse, Justin. Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement (Harvard U.P. 2010), translated from the French.
- McClelland, Mark, The unbridling of virtue: neoconservatism between the Cold War and the Iraq War.
- Shavit, Ari, "White Man's Burden", Haaretz, 3 April 2003.
- Singh, Robert. "Neoconservatism in the age of Obama." in Inderjeet Parmar, ed., Obama and the World (Routledge, 2014). 51–62. online Archived 20 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine
Identity
- "Neocon 101: What do neoconservatives believe?", Christian Science Monitor, 2003
- Rose, David, "Neo Culpa", Vanity Fair, 2006
- Steigerwald, Bill. "So, what is a 'Neocon'?".
- Lind, Michael, "A Tragedy of Errors".
Critiques
- Fukuyama, Francis. "After Neoconservatism", The New York Times, 2006.
- Thompson, Bradley C. (with Yaron Brook). Neoconservatism. An Obituary for an Idea. Boulder/London: Paradigm Publishers, 2010. ISBN 978-1-59451-831-7.
External links
- Media related to Neoconservatism at Wikimedia Commons
- Neoconservatism at the Encyclopædia Britannica
- Adam Curtis, The Power of Nightmares, BBC. Archive.
- "Why Neoconservatism Still Matters" by Justin Vaïsse
- "Neoconservativism in a Nutshell" by Jim Lobe
- The Rise and Demise of American Unipolarism: Neoconservatism and U.S. Foreign Policy 1989–2009 by Maria Ryan
- Interview with Jim Lobe on Neoconservatism
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