« Taiwan Journal of Political Science No.25Publish: 2005/09

Bush’s Anti-Terrorist Security Strategies and the Challenges: A Lesson from Iraq

Author: Wen-sheng Chen

Abstract / Chinese PDF Download

This paper aims to examine George W. Bush’s anti-terrorist security strategiesin his first term through Iraq case, thereby to envisage the challenges to his secondterm. U.S. grand strategy and the strategies of preemption and regime change wereevaluated. In particular, the research indicats that the U.S. war against Iraq in 2003has  refuted  some  arguments  of  the  offensive  realist  John  J.  Mearsheimer.  Thisarticle  shows  that  the  challenges  to  Bush  administration  are  as  follows:  1)  Withrespect  to  grand  strategy,  the  Bush  administration  has  to  struggle  for  power  withother  major  powers  and  to  cooperate  with  them  to  counter  terrorism  at  the  sametime; 2) the preemptive strategy not only reflects the arrogance of U.S. hegemony,but also serves as a catalyst for anti-Americanism and terrorism; 3) the strategy ofregime  change  both  infringes  state  sovereignty  and  produces  the  more  and  more“little Osama bin Laden” with hatred against US.

Keywords:anti-terrorism、Bush、Hegemony、Iraq、preemption、preventive war、regime change、unilateralism、US