Neoconservatism

See also neoconservatives

History

The term 'neoconservative' was coined in the 1970s to describe a group of American liberals whose hawkish foreign policy views and scepticism about the welfare state led them to become estranged fro the majority of their fellows on the left. For Irving Kristol, a leading figure in the movement, neoconservatives were "liberals who were mugged by reality."

Other key founders include Norman Podhoretz, Nathan Glazer, Daniel Bell, James Q. Wilson, and Seymour Martin Lipset.

Many were also influenced by the ideas of Leo Strauss, who had influenced Irving Kristol and other neoconservatives who now have positions in the George W. Bush foreign policy advisory teams. The term neoconservative was originally given to these individuals as a means of labelling them, because they were democrats who had recently abandoned their liberal philosophies in politics. However, they were eventually indentified with the Republican party, and conservatives in general, after ferverently disagreeing with the Democratic Presidential nominee George McGovern in 1972.This disagreement with McGovern had come from his advocation of withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. Another reason for their acceptance as Republican conservatives was their previous criticism and opposition to President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society proposals during the 1960's.

However, it wasn't until the early 1980's that the neoconservatives began having a great impact, when Ronald Reagan came to power as President of the United States of America. Within his administration he included future Project for the New American Century neoconservatives, and pro israeli's, Paul Wolfowitz, Jeane Kilpatrick, Elliot Abrams, Mark Kampelman, Richard N. Perle, as well as Donald Rumsfeld who all supported his policies of attacking and breaking what they saw as the dominance of communism. Many also had influence amongst George. H Bush's policies, but despite their foreign policy dominance of the Republicans in the 1990's, they failed to gain positions of policy influence.

When President George W. Bush came to power in 2001, he quickly appointed Donald Rumsfeld as Defence secretary, as well as appointing Paul Wolfowitz, and many other neoconservative thinkers into various positions of influence within his administration. Where neoconservatism had become the dominant ideology in foreign affairs, and policy, but according to many neoconservatism is heading towards its grave, while its own followers believe that "almost everything" they "stood for now....lies in ruins".neoconservatism.

Aims

Their aims were orginally focused on challenging the domestic policies of President Lyndon Johnson during the 1960's, specifically his great society proposals, and others concerning a welfare state. Neoconservatives then moved onto foreign policy where they became radically against communism, and later in the 21st century against any state which they presupposed had any form of threat to what they saw as American interests, and its dominance.This is done by focusing on "the battle of ideas and ideologies, and on the psychological impact of these policies" within a society as well as reconstituting the American military in order to physically endorse their foreign policies.

Future Outlook

The future outlook amongst many neoconservatives is generally the same, although Francis Fukuyama now holds that the ideology has "evolved into something I can no longer support".These aims are finishing Iraqi objectives, and maintaining American presence within its borders, targetting Iran, the continuing enlargement of the military both in terms of personnel and equipment, to continue to promote their form of democracy in order to attempt to passify the population of the middle east.Specifically Robert Kagan, signatory of the Project for the New American Century and the American Enterprise Institute, holds that America must maintain its presence in huge numbers within Iraq. In 2006 he defended policy proposals by neoconservative think tanks and the Bush Administration to allow a "surge" of 55,000 American troops to be sent to Iraq to solidify American stranglehold within the country. This would then increase American presence alone in the country to 200,000 and mean that this number will not drop until 2009 at the earliest.Although the Bush Administration is currently heading for a sharp exit from the political stageshow, neoconservatism is set to carry on with the show exploiting the daily fears of the American public, and in particular their security fears around the possiblity of another 9/11, as well as emphasising its objective in Iraq.