Fundamental mistakes of US foreign policy

October 9th, 2006 at 17:45 Björn Hallberg

Stephen M. Walt on Misreading the tea leaves: US missteps on foreign policy

First, officials misunderstood how other states see US primacy. Convinced that American power was a force for good, Bush thought other states would welcome US leadership as long as he acted decisively. In fact, US primacy made even longstanding allies nervous because they didn’t know whether America would use its vast power in ways that would help or harm them.

A second mistake was blaming anti-Americanism on “what we are” rather than “what we do.” Bush says our enemies “hate our freedom” and believes that anti-Americanism arises from “hostility to core US values.” Wrong again.

Third, Bush has consistently underestimated America’s opponents, believing that they were too weak to stand up to the world’s only superpower. Unfortunately, the past five years have demonstrated that even much weaker actors have many ways to counter US power.

Also pertinent: Paul Kennedy on why America goes too far and imperial overstretch.

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