The Myth of American Multilateralism.

Studies on the Bush presidency have summed up and identified three central traits: military hegemony, preemption, and unilateralism. Consequently, recent debate has focused on the emergence of unilateralism, as well as the inherent nature of American foreign policy as multilateral, unilateral, or vacillating. This project seeks to contribute to this debate in two ways. First by providing a thorough analysis of contemporary unilateralism and its historical perspective in American foreign policy. The goal is to put forth a clear contextual understanding of unilateralism and to reveal its perceived strategic relevance in American foreign policy. Secondly, the paper seeks to satisfy the question: Was the Bush administrations display of unilateralism an anomaly of American foreign policy? By examining rhetoric of presidential administrations in the post Cold War era, we can identify and measure unilateralist tendencies and values (over multilateral ones) predating, and then later expanded by the Bush administration. For this, the study will draw on content analysis of presidential speeches and policy statements, as well as those of other central foreign policy leaders in the selected administration. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]