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Der amerikanische Neokonservatismus und seine Ursprünge, Ideen und Ziele : eine liberale und eine realistische Kritik

  • The paper aims at presenting research about Neo-Conservatism, in particular about the origin(s), history of development, ideas, and foreign policy goals. The core argument of the paper is that the discipline of International Relations (IR), in particular the North American Research and the Peace and Conflict Research, should take the Neoconservatives seriously. Three arguments can be made for this: First of all, Neoconservatives such as Robert Kagan, Charles Krauthammer, and Normen Podhoretz are participating in the debates about US foreign policy, and they introduce their ideas (e.g. "democracy promotion", "unipolar moment", and "benevolent empire") into the discourse. The foreign policy of the Reagan administration as well as the foreign policy of George W. Bush was highly influenced by neoconservative ideas. To sum up, Neo-Conservatism is the fourth influential school of US foreign policy beside Isolationism, Liberal Internationalism, and Realism. Secondly, Neoconservatives are proponents of a war-prone-US foreign policy, and advocates of the "war on terror" and the Iraq War. And finally, Neoconservatives are characterized by ideas, in particular the idea of democracy promotion, as the purpose of American politics and historic mission. Along with this, a neoconservative misunderstanding of IR theories becomes apparent. The "Democrat Realist" Krauthammer and the "Wilsonianist" Podhoretz both refer to "Realism", "Liberalism" and Wilson’s doctrine "to make the world safe for democracy" in a way which is not only misleading, but deceptive. Neoconservatives suggest that Realism is a sole power politics-theory without normative bias, and that the scholars of the liberal peace theory as well as Wilson and his successors claim for a policy of democracy promotion by using force and waging war. Against this background, a critical examination with Neoconservatism is presented in the paper. To reveal the neoconservative misunderstanding of IR discipline and its two important school of thoughts, the few similarities but numerous differences between Neo-Conservatism on the one hand and realist and liberal approaches in IR on the other hand are worked out.

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Metadaten
Author:Alexander Reichwein
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-62719
Parent Title (German):Zentrum für Nordamerika-Forschung (Frankfurt am Main): ZENAF Arbeits- und Forschungsberichte ; Nr. 2009,1
Series (Serial Number):ZENAF Arbeits- und Forschungsberichte : (ZAF) (2009,1)
Publisher:Zentrum für Nordamerika – Forschung (ZENAF)
Place of publication:Frankfurt am Main
Document Type:Working Paper
Language:German
Date of Publication (online):2009/03/10
Year of first Publication:2009
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2009/03/10
Page Number:42
Source:Frankfurt am Main : Goethe-Univ., Zentrum für Nordamerika-Forschung
HeBIS-PPN:209963506
Institutes:Wissenschaftliche Zentren und koordinierte Programme / Zentrum für Nordamerika-Forschung (ZENAF)
Dewey Decimal Classification:3 Sozialwissenschaften / 32 Politikwissenschaft / 320 Politikwissenschaft
Licence (German):License LogoDeutsches Urheberrecht