Neoconservatism

A uniquely right-wing U.S. political philosophy that seeks to promote American values across the globe, is sympathetic to traditional moral values, is highly suspicious of various forms of world government, and is overtly supportive of both the sovereign state of Israel and the broader need to maintain a democratic foothold in the Middle East. Neoconservatives believe strongly that liberal democracy is the political and economic model toward which all societies should strive. In comparison with traditional conservatives, U.S. Museum of Naval Aviation. U.S. Naval Aviation. Westport, CT: Hugh Lauter Levin, 2001. neoconservatives are more comfortable with the presence of the welfare state, tend to be less isolationist in philosophy, and view the People's Republic of China (PRC) as a serious and growing threat to the United States.

Neoconservatism began as an offshoot of left-wing, New York intellectualism of the 1960s and early 1970s. These intellectuals were highly supportive of U.S. social progress (particularly as it pertained to equal rights), but were troubled by what they perceived as the social excesses and weakening anticommunist stances of the political left.

Modern neoconservatives opted to leave the Democratic party in favor of the right-wing politics of conservatives Richard Nixon, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan. Although they eventually found an intellectual home within the Republican party, their mission continues to revolve around its transformation. As Irving Kristol, the so-called godfather of neoconservatives, noted in a 2003 issue of The Weekly Standard(a popular neoconservative magazine), the project of neoconservatism is “to convert the Republican party, and American conservatism in general, against their respective wills, into a kind of conservative politics suitable to governing a modern democracy.”

During the 1980s, neoconservatism was most closely aligned with (and defined by) the staunch anti-communism of the Reagan administration. However, with the crumbling of Soviet hegemony in the 1990s, support for the neoconservative movement—and for the large military budgets that typically accompanied it—began to wane. The United States found itself in the midst of a new multilateralism, as evidenced by the formation of the Operation Desert Storm coalition during the Persian Gulf War of 1991, the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993, and the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995.

Neoconservatism experienced a major setback in 1991 when President George H.W. Bush, largely on the advice of General Colin Powell, refused to remove Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein from power and liberate the Iraqi Kurds at the conclusion of the Gulf War. However, with the election of President George W. Bush in 2000 and the introduction of a massive U.S. effort to curtail international terrorism after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, neoconservatism has experienced a rebirth.

Sustained military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other parts of the world reflect the neoconservative belief that the United States can ill afford simply to [Page 515]contain threats to the American way of life—it must prevent them altogether. More broadly, such efforts are in line with the neoconservative belief that the United States should actively flex its political, economic, and military might around the globe, and that such actions, even if they appear imperialistic, represent the best hope for bringing about a new era of peace.

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