"COWBOY DIPLOMACY": BUSH'S FOREIGN POLICY FROM 2001 TO THE PRESENT

"Of the people, by the people, for the people"

Perhaps the most inexperienced president in American history, George W. Bush jumped into the international arena to the amazement and embarrassment of many. He implemented a smug unilateral foreign policy. "ON THE DEFENSIVE" – That was a common thread that could be traced through Bush’s presidency. It appeared that the president did his best to alienate Americans at home as well as world leaders abroad.

On his first overseas tour, educated and seasoned European leaders were flabbergasted at the president's brash behavior.

Buckling under pressure from corporate America, Bush defied the leaders of industrialized global nations by refusing to sign the Kyoto Accords.

Bush was caught in a lie regarding defense sales to Taiwan. He reversed three decades of American foreign policy in Asia by opening the way for Taiwan to buy eight diesel submarines.

Bush threatened to unilaterally abrogate SALT I in an attempt to build the National Missile Defense System which had undergone a number of tainted and unsuccessful tests.

He refused to become a partner in the International Criminal Court, presumably because Americans could be indicted by the international judiciary.

The president opted out of war tribunals which also had the potential of indicting Americans.

Bush ignored the GATT agreement and increased import duties on steel.

Bush rejected international agreements to reduce the sale of small arms and to ban land mines.

Bush rejected the Biological Weapons Treaty.

On September 11, 2001 -- after the terrorist attacks on American soil -- Bush quickly dropped his unilateral policies and called for a multilateral approach to global politics. Then he used his high popularity rating as a war-time president to lobby for his right-wing agenda, both domestically and abroad.

1. Launching an Arrogant Foreign Policy
2. Rekindling the Cold War
3. On the Defensive in Europe in 2001
4. World Council against Racism
5. The U.N. Human Rights Commission and the Peace-Building Commission
6. Crises in Africa Are Ignored by Bush
8. Opting out of War Tribunals
9. Unprecedented Defense Spending
11. Flirting with Nuclear War
12. The Rise and Fall of the Office of Strategic Influence
13. Bush's Anti-Missile System
14. Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Waste
15. Opposing the United Nations Small Arms Agreement
16. Opposing the International Criminal Court
17. Rejecting the Biological Weapons Treaty
18. Opposing the Banning of Land Miness Agreement
19. Battling the United Nations
20. Bush Grabs More Power
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22. The World Lashes out at Bush's Aggression
23. Israel and the Palestinians
24. The 2002 Earth Summit in Africa