For those interested in US domestic politics and the potential impact of a Romney presidency on US foreign policy with a South Pacific angle, my thoughts on the subject are gathered here.
Kiwipolitico
For those interested in US domestic politics and the potential impact of a Romney presidency on US foreign policy with a South Pacific angle, my thoughts on the subject are gathered here.
Interesting. I always thought neocon was a more internationalist term that was not specifically American but rather Western values.
A question only because i find it amusing.Is “George D. Bush” Dubya?
Neoconservatism is definitely not a specifically American term. It was coined by Kenneth Schwartz when he was working at ANU.
Phil: Thanks for the correction. Indeed some sort of slip, now corrected.
Hugh: As made clear in the post, I am referring to US neoconservatism, not to other variants. US neoconservatism traces back to the 1930s when it was used to describe liberals who were opposed to communism, and then was resurrected by disaffected liberals in the late 1960s and early 1970s, some of whom were students of the late Leo Strauss. Therefore I doubt very much that Kenneth Schwartz from ANU coined the phrase.
That was a very informative article, albeit I was a bit late getting to it, Pablo.
I’m one who is very concerned about the US pivot in this direction and believe if we join in as Australia has done, that we will beget insecurity rather than security.
The concept of American values is interesting and I think it’s less well understood that always and foremost for the US is their national (i.e. economic and ‘security’) interests. In that context, I’m sorry to say that I have no truck whatsoever for the widely held view that the US has good intentions – not that I take that meaning from your dispassionate article. And no doubt you have noted the comments of Malcolm Fraser on the issue of relations with China. Iran will be the warm up.
Interesting times are a-coming, but my main thought on the upcoming election (which I have always thought Romney has a strong chance of winning for various reasons) is that no matter which candidate wins, the US citizens and the world will continue to suffer from the internal US pivot to the right, as embodied by Obama in his domestic and foreign policies.