The Great Transformation and the Failure of Illiberal Hegemony - Liberal Leviathan: The Origins, Crisis, and Transformation of the American World Order - page 176

Bush's Unipolar Grand Strategy
At the heart of the Bush Doctrine was the proposition that the United States would act direc-
tly—and alone, if necessary—in pursuit of global security threats that it itself identified, and
in this struggle countries were either with the United States or against it. The United States
would be a global security provider, but it would also be less encumbered by rules and insti-
tutions. The Bush administration's more general impulse toward unilateralism and resistance
to international rules, institutions, treaties, and commitments reinforced this far-reaching shift
in America's global position. The United States would stand above the global order and use
its unrivaled power to enforce security and order. In a post-Westphalian world of anarchy,
the United States proposed to step forward and act as an order-creating Leviathan. Where
in previous eras the problem of order could only be solved by the balancing of power, the
administration asserted, it would now be solved by American dominance. The dangers of an-
archy and balance of power were to be replaced by the stability of American-directed global
hierarchy. 53
The Bush administration was, in effect, making a grand offer to the rest of the world. The
United States would serve as the unipolar provider of global security, but in return the world
would be expected to treat the United States differently. The United States would not be ob-
liged to play by the same rules as other states. Such was the price the world must pay for the
American provision of the global public good of order and peace.
The attacks of September 11 had revealed new threats to the United States and others
around the world. It was a cruel paradox. The United States had begun the new century at the
zenith of its power. But the terrorist attacks in 2001 dramatically revealed a whole new world
of threats and insecurity. In the view of the Bush administration, the United States could not
remain content simply to preside over the old rules and institutions of the global system. It
would need to redefine and transform America's position and the terms of its leadership. The
new threats to America and global security came from small networks of terrorists with a
growing ability to gain access to weapons of mass destruction and inflict them on the civil-
ized world. According to Bush administration officials, these new threats required a radical
rethinking of American grand strategy—how the United States deploys power, works with
other states, and seeks to shape its security environment.
There are six components to this Bush unipolar grand strategy. 54 The first aspect of the
Bush grand strategy, as noted, was a fundamental commitment to maintaining a unipolar
world in which the United States has no peer competitor. No coalition of great powers
without the United States would be allowed to achieve hegemony. 55 President George W.
Bush made this point the centerpiece of American security policy in his West Point speech
in June 2002: “America has, and intends to keep, military strength beyond challenge, thereby
making destabilizing arms races pointless and limiting rivalries to trade and other pursuits.” 56