Everything about Neoconservative totally explained
Neoconservatism is a political philosophy that emerged in the United States from the rejection of the
social liberalism,
moral relativism, and
New Left counterculture of the 1960s. It influenced the presidential administrations of
Ronald Reagan and
George W. Bush, representing a realignment in American politics, and the defection of some liberals to the right side of the political spectrum; hence the term, which refers to being 'new' conservatives. Neoconservatism emphasizes foreign policy as the paramount responsibility of government, maintaining that America's role as the world's sole superpower is indispensable to establishing and maintaining global order.
The term
neoconservative was originally used as a criticism against liberals who had "moved to the right".
Michael Harrington, a
democratic socialist, coined the usage of
neoconservative in a 1973
Dissent magazine article concerning welfare policy. According to
E. J. Dionne, the nascent neoconservatives were driven by "the notion that liberalism" had failed and "no longer knew what it was talking about.". Another source was
Norman Podhoretz, editor of
Commentary magazine from 1960 to 1995. By 1982 Podhoretz was calling himself a neoconservative, in a
New York Times Magazine article titled "The Neoconservative Anguish over Reagan's Foreign Policy".
Prominent neoconservative periodicals are
Commentary and
The Weekly Standard. Neoconservatives are associated with foreign policy initiatives of
think tanks such as the
American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the
Project for the New American Century (PNAC),
The Heritage Foundation, and the
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA).
History and origins
Left-wing past of neoconservatives
Author
Michael Lind argues that "the organization as well as the ideology of the neoconservative movement has left-liberal origins". He draws a line from the center-left anti-communist
Congress for Cultural Freedom, founded in 1950, to the
Committee on the Present Danger (1950-1953, then re-founded in 1976), to the
Project for the New American Century (1997), and adds that "European social-democratic models inspired the quintessential neocon institution, the
National Endowment for Democracy" (founded 1983).
The neoconservative desire to spread democracy abroad has been likened to the
Trotskyist theory of
permanent revolution. Lind argues that the neoconservatives are influenced by the thought of former Trotskyists such as
James Burnham and
Max Shachtman, who argued that "the United States and similar societies are dominated by a decadent, postbourgeois '
new class.'" He sees the neoconservative concept of "global democratic revolution" as deriving from the Trotskyist
Fourth International's "vision of permanent revolution." He also points to what he sees as the
Marxist origin of "the
economic determinist idea that liberal democracy is an
epiphenomenon of
capitalism," which he describes as "Marxism with
entrepreneurs substituted for
proletarians as the heroic subjects of history." However, few leading neoconservatives cite James Burnham as a major influence.
Critics of Lind contend that there's no theoretical connection between Trotsky's
permanent revolution, and that the idea of a
global democratic revolution instead has
Wilsonian roots. While both Wilsonianism and the theory of permanent revolution have been proposed as strategies for underdeveloped parts of the world, Wilson proposed capitalist solutions, while Trotsky advocated socialist solutions.
Great Depression and World War II
"New" conservatives initially approached this view from the
political left. The forerunners of neoconservatism were often
liberals or
socialists who strongly supported the Allied cause in
World War II, and who were influenced by the
Great Depression-era ideas of the
New Deal,
trade unionism, and Trotskyism, particularly those who followed the political ideas of
Max Shachtman. A number of future neoconservatives, such as
Jeane Kirkpatrick, were
Shachtmanites in their youth; some were later involved with
Social Democrats USA.
Some of the mid-20th century
New York Intellectuals were forebears of neoconservatism. The most notable was literary critic
Lionel Trilling, who wrote, "In the United States at this time liberalism isn't only the dominant but even the sole intellectual tradition." It was this liberal
vital center, a term coined by the historian and liberal theorist
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., that the neoconservatives would see as threatened by New Left extremism. But the majority of vital center liberals remained affiliated with the Democratic Party, retained left-of-center viewpoints, and opposed Republican politicians such as Richard Nixon who first attracted neoconservative support.
Initially, the neoconservatives were less concerned with foreign policy than with domestic policy. Irving Kristol's journal,
The Public Interest, focused on ways that government planning in the liberal state had produced unintended harmful consequences. Norman Podhoretz's magazine
Commentary, formerly a journal of the liberal left, had more of a cultural focus, criticizing excesses in the movements for black equality and women's rights, and in the academic left. Through the 1950s and early 1960s the future neoconservatives had been socialists or liberals strongly supportive of the
American Civil Rights Movement,
integration, and
Martin Luther King, Jr..
The neoconservatives, arising from the
anti-Stalinist left of the 1950s, opposed the
anti-capitalism of the
New Left of the 1960s. They broke from the
liberal consensus of the early post-World War II years in foreign policy, and opposed
Détente with the
Soviet Union in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Drift away from New Left and Great Society
Initially the views of the
New Left were popular with the children of hard-line communists, often Jewish immigrants on the edge of poverty. Neoconservatives came to dislike the
counterculture of the 1960s
baby boomers, and what they saw as
anti-Americanism in the
non-interventionism of the movement against the
Vietnam War.
As the radicalization of the New Left pushed these intellectuals farther to the right, they moved toward a more aggressive
militarism, while becoming disillusioned with President
Lyndon B. Johnson's
Great Society domestic programs. Academics in these circles, many still Democrats, rejected the Democratic Party's leftward drift on defense issues in the 1970s, especially after the nomination of
George McGovern for president in 1972. The influential 1970 bestseller
The Real Majority by future
television commentator and neoconservative
Ben Wattenberg expressed that the "real majority" of the electorate supported economic liberalism but social conservatism, and warned Democrats it could be disastrous to take liberal stances on certain social and crime issues.
Many supported Democratic Senator
Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson, derisively known as the
Senator from Boeing, during his 1972 and 1976 campaigns for president. Among those who worked for Jackson were future neoconservatives
Paul Wolfowitz,
Doug Feith,
Richard Perle and
Felix Rohatyn. In the late 1970s neoconservative support moved to
Ronald Reagan and the Republicans, who promised to confront Soviet
expansionism.
Michael Lind, a self-described former neoconservative, explained:
1980s
During the 1970s political scientist
Jeane Kirkpatrick criticized the Democratic Party, to which she belonged. She opposed the nomination of the antiwar George McGovern in 1972, and accused the
Jimmy Carter administration (1977-1981) of applying a double standard in human rights, by tolerating abuses in communist states, while withdrawing support of anti-communist autocrats. She joined
Ronald Reagan's successful 1980 campaign for president as his foreign policy adviser. She was
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 1981 to 1985.
During this period, the United States increased its support for anti-communist governments, even going so far as to support some that engaged in human rights abuses, as part of its general hard line against communism. As the 1980s wore on, younger second-generation neoconservatives, such as
Elliott Abrams, pushed for a clear policy of supporting democracy against both left and right wing dictators. This debate led to a policy shift in 1986, when the Reagan administration urged
Philippines president
Ferdinand Marcos to step down amid turmoil over a rigged election. Abrams also supported the 1988 Chilean plebiscite that resulted in the restoration of democratic rule and
Augusto Pinochet's eventual removal from office. Through the
National Endowment for Democracy, led by another neoconservative, Carl Gershman, funds were directed to the anti-Pinochet opposition in order to ensure a fair election.
1990s
During the 1990s, neoconservatives were once again in the opposition side of the foreign policy establishment, both under the Republican Administration of President
George H. W. Bush and that of his Democratic successor, President
Bill Clinton. Many critics charged that the neoconservatives lost their and influence following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Others argue that they lost their status due to their association with the
Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan Administration.
Neoconservative writers were critical of the post-Cold War foreign policy of both George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, which they criticized for reducing military expenditures and lacking a sense of idealism in the promotion of American interests. They accused these Administrations of lacking both
moral clarity and the conviction to pursue unilaterally America's international strategic interests.
The movement was galvanized by the decision of George H. W. Bush and
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General
Colin Powell to leave
Saddam Hussein in power after the first
Gulf War in 1991. Some neoconservatives viewed this policy, and the decision not to support indigenous dissident groups such as the
Kurds and
Shiites in their
1991-1992 resistance to Hussein, as a betrayal of democratic principles.
Ironically, some of those same targets of criticism would later become fierce advocates of neoconservative policies. In 1992, referring to the first
Gulf War, then
United States Secretary of Defense and future
Vice President Dick Cheney, said:
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Within a few years of the Gulf War in
Iraq, many neoconservatives were pushing to oust Saddam Hussein. On
February 19,
1998, an open letter to President Clinton appeared, signed by dozens of pundits, many identified with neoconservatism and, later, related groups such as the
PNAC, urging decisive action to remove Saddam from power.
Neoconservatives were also members of the
blue team, which argued for a confrontational policy toward the
People's Republic of China and strong military and diplomatic support for
Taiwan.
In the late 1990s Irving Kristol and other writers in neoconservative magazines began touting anti-darwinist views, in support of
intelligent design. Since these neoconservatives were largely of secular backgrounds, a few commentators have speculated that this - along with support for religion generally - may have been a case of a noble lie, intended to protect public morality, or even tactical politics, to attract religious supporters.
2000s
Administration of George W. Bush
The Bush campaign and the early Bush Administration didn't exhibit strong support for neoconservative principles.
As a candidate Bush argued for a restrained foreign policy, stating his opposition to the idea of
nation-building and an early foreign policy confrontation with China was handled without the vociferousness suggested by some neoconservatives.. Also early in the Administration, some neoconservatives criticized Bush's Administration as insufficiently supportive of
Israel, and suggested Bush's foreign policies were not substantially different from those of President Clinton.
Bush's policies changed dramatically immediately after the
September 11, 2001 attacks. According to columnist Gerard Baker,
Bush laid out his vision of the future in his State of the Union speech in January 2002, following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The speech, written by neoconservative
David Frum, named Iraq, Iran and North Korea as states that "constitute an
axis of evil" and "pose a grave and growing danger."
Bush suggested the possibility of preemptive war: "I won't wait on events, while dangers gather. I won't stand by, as peril draws closer and closer. The United States of America won't permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."
Bush Doctrine
The
Bush Doctrine of preemptive war was explicitly stated in the
National Security Council text "National Security Strategy of the United States", published
September 20,
2002.
"We must deter and defend against the threat before it's unleashed... even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy's attack... The United States will, if necessary, act preemptively."
Policy analysts noted that the Bush Doctrine as stated in the 2002 NSC document bore a strong resemblance to recommendations originally presented in a controversial Defense Planning Guidance draft written in 1992 by
Paul Wolfowitz under the first Bush administration.
The Bush Doctrine was greeted with accolades by many neoconservatives.
When asked whether he agreed with the Bush Doctrine,
Max Boot said he did, and that "I think [Bushis] exactly right to say we can't sit back and wait for the next terrorist strike on Manhattan. We have to go out and stop the terrorists overseas. We have to play the role of the global policeman... But I also argue that we ought to go further."
Discussing the significance of the Bush Doctrine, neoconservative writer
William Kristol claimed: "The world is a mess. And, I think, it's very much to Bush's credit that he's gotten serious about dealing with it... The danger isn't that we're going to do too much. The danger is that we're going to do too little."
2008 Presidential Election
In November 2008, the United States will hold a presidential election. The Republican candidate is
John McCain. He supports continuing the
Iraq War, "the issue that's most clearly identified with the neoconservatives", but the
New York Times reports that his foreign policy views combine elements of neoconservatism and the main competing view in conservative circles,
pragmatism, also called
realism:
Evolution of neoconservative views
Usage and general views
The term has been used before, and its meaning has changed over time. Writing in
The Contemporary Review (London) in 1883,
Henry Dunckley used the term to describe factions within the Conservative Party;
James Bryce again uses it in his
Modern Democracies (1921) to describe British political history of the 1880s. The German authoritarians
Carl Schmitt, who became professor at the
University of Berlin in 1933, the same year that he entered the Nazi party (NSDAP), and
Arthur Moeller van den Bruck were called "neo-conservatives". In "The Future of Democratic Values" in
Partisan Review, July-August 1943,
Dwight MacDonald complained of "the neo-conservatives of our time [who] reject the propositions on materialism, Human Nature, and Progress." He cited as an example
Jacques Barzun, who was "attempting to combine progressive values and conservative concepts."
In the early 1970s, democratic socialist Michael Harrington used the term in its modern meaning. He characterized neoconservatives as former leftists — whom he derided as "socialists for
Nixon" — who had moved significantly to the right. These people tended to remain supporters of
social democracy, but distinguished themselves by allying with the Nixon administration over foreign policy, especially by their support for the Vietnam War and opposition to the Soviet Union. They still supported the
welfare state, but not necessarily in its contemporary form.
Irving Kristol remarked that a neoconservative is a "liberal mugged by reality," one who became more conservative after seeing the results of liberal policies.
Kristol also claims three distinctive aspects of neoconservatism from previous forms of conservatism: a forward-looking approach drawn from their liberal heritage, rather than the reactionary and dour approach of previous conservatives; a meliorative outlook, proposing alternate reforms rather than simply attacking social liberal reforms; taking philosophical or ideological ideas very seriously.
Political philosopher
Leo Strauss (1899–1973) was an important intellectual antecedent of neoconservativism. Notably Strauss influenced
Allan Bloom, author of the 1987 bestseller
Closing of the American Mind.
Usage outside the United States
In other
liberal democracies, the meaning of
neoconservatism is closely related to its meaning in the United States. Neoconservatives in these countries tend to support the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and similar U.S. foreign policy, while differing more on domestic policy. Examples are:
In countries which are not liberal democracies, the term has entirely different meanings:
China and Iran, see Neoconservatism (disambiguation).
Neoconservative views on foreign policy
Historically, neoconservatives supported a militant anticommunism, tolerated more social welfare spending than was sometimes acceptable to libertarians and paleoconservatives, and sympathized with a non-traditional foreign policy agenda that was less deferential to traditional conceptions of diplomacy and international law and less inclined to compromise principles, even if that meant unilateral action.
The movement began to focus on such foreign issues in the mid-1970s. However, it first crystallized in the late 1960s as an effort to combat the radical cultural changes taking place within the United States. Irving Kristol wrote: "If there's any one thing that neoconservatives are unanimous about, it's their dislike of the counterculture." Norman Podhoretz agreed: "Revulsion against the counterculture accounted for more converts to neoconservatism than any other single factor." Ira Chernus argues that the deepest root of the neoconservative movement is its fear that the counterculture would undermine the authority of traditional values and moral norms. Because neoconservatives believe that human nature is innately selfish, they believe that a society with no commonly accepted values based on religion or ancient tradition will end up in a war of all against all. They also believe that the most important social value is strength, especially the strength to control natural impulses. The only alternative, they assume, is weakness that will let impulses run riot and lead to social chaos.
According to Peter Steinfels, a historian of the movement, the neoconservatives' "emphasis on foreign affairs emerged after the New Left and the counterculture had dissolved as convincing foils for neoconservatism... The essential source of their anxiety isn't military or geopolitical or to be found overseas at all; it's domestic and cultural and ideological." Neoconservative foreign policy parallels their domestic policy. They insist that the U.S. military must be strong enough to control the world, or else the world will descend into chaos.
Believing that America should "export democracy", that is, spread its ideals of government, economics, and culture abroad, they grew to reject U.S. reliance on international organizations and treaties to accomplish these objectives. Compared to other U.S. conservatives, neoconservatives take a more idealist stance on foreign policy; adhere less to social conservatism; have a weaker dedication to the policy of minimal government; and in the past, have been more supportive of the welfare state. None of these qualities are necessary.
Aggressive support for democracies and nation building is additionally justified by a belief that, over the long term, it'll reduce the extremism that's a breeding ground for Islamic terrorism. Neoconservatives, along with many other political theorists, have argued that democratic regimes are less likely to instigate a war than a country with an authoritarian form of government. Further, they argue that the lack of freedoms, lack of economic opportunities, and the lack of secular general education in authoritarian regimes promotes radicalism and extremism. Consequently, neoconservatives advocate the spread of democracy to regions of the world where it currently doesn't prevail, notably the Arab nations of the Middle East, communist China and North Korea, and Iran.
Neoconservatives believe in the ability of the United States to install democracy after a conflict, citing the denazification of Germany and installation of democratic government in Japan after World War II. This idea guided U.S. policy in Iraq after the removal of the Saddam Hussein regime, when the U.S. organized elections as soon as practical. Neoconservatives also ascribe to principal of defending democracies against aggression.
Distinctions from other conservatives
Most neoconservatives are members of the Republican Party. They have been in electoral alignment with other conservatives and served in the same presidential administrations. While they've often ignored ideological differences in alliance against those to their left, neoconservatives differ from traditional or paleoconservatives. In particular, they disagree with nativism, protectionism, and non-interventionism in foreign policy, ideologies rooted in American history and exemplified by former Republican paleoconservative Pat Buchanan. Compared with traditional conservatism and libertarianism, which may be non-interventionist, neoconservatism emphasizes defense capability, challenging regimes hostile to the values and interests of the United States, and pressing for free-market policies abroad. Neoconservatives also believe in democratic peace theory, the proposition that democracies never or almost never go to war with one another.
Neoconservatives disagree with political realism in foreign policy, often associated with Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. Though Republican and anti-communist, Nixon and Kissinger made pragmatic accommodation with dictators and sought peace through negotiations, diplomacy, and arms control. They pursued détente with the Soviet Union, rather than rollback, and established relations with the communist People's Republic of China.
Criticism of the term neoconservative
Some of those identified as neoconservative reject the term, arguing that it lacks a coherent definition, or that it was coherent only in the context of the Cold War.
Conservative writer David Horowitz argues that the increasing use of the term neoconservative since the 2003 start of the Iraq War has made it irrelevant:
The term may have lost meaning due to excessive and inconsistent use. For example, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld have been identified as leading neoconservatives despite the fact that they've been life-long conservative Republicans (though Cheney has supported Irving Kristol's ideas).
Some critics reject the idea that there's a neoconservative movement separate from traditional American conservatism. Traditional conservatives are skeptical of the contemporary usage of the term and dislike being associated with its stereotypes or supposed agendas. Columnist David Harsanyi wrote, "These days, it seems that even temperate support for military action against dictators and terrorists qualifies you a neocon." Jonah Goldberg rejected the label as trite and over-used, arguing "There's nothing 'neo' about me: I was never anything other than conservative."
Antisemitism
Some neoconservatives believe that criticism of neoconservatism is couched in antisemitic stereotypes, and that the term has been adopted by the political left to stigmatize support for Israel. In The Chronicle of Higher Education, Robert J. Lieber warned that criticism of the 2003 Iraq War had spawned
David Brooks derided the "fantasies" of "full-mooners fixated on a... sort of Yiddish Trilateral Commission", beliefs which had "hardened into common knowledge... In truth, people labeled neocons (con is short for 'conservative' and neo is short for 'Jewish') travel in widely different circles..." Barry Rubin argued that the neoconservative label is used as an antisemitic pejorative:
The charges of antisemitism are controversial. As with the contested concept of the new antisemitism, some commentators claim that identifying support of Israel with the Jewish people is itself antisemitic. For example, Norman Finkelstein says it would be antisemitic "both to identify and not to identify Israel with Jews."
Criticism
The term neoconservative may be used pejoratively by self-described paleoconservatives, Democrats, and by libertarians of both left and right.
Critics take issue with neoconservatives' support for aggressive foreign policy. Critics from the left take issue with what they characterize as unilateralism and lack of concern with international consensus through organizations such as the United Nations. Neoconservatives respond by describing their shared view as a belief that national security is best attained by promoting freedom and democracy abroad through the support of pro-democracy movements, foreign aid and in certain cases military intervention. This is a departure from the traditional conservative tendency to support friendly regimes in matters of trade and anti-communism even at the expense of undermining existing democratic systems. Author Paul Berman in his book Terror and Liberalism describes it as, "Freedom for others means safety for ourselves. Let us be for freedom for others."
Imperialism and secrecy
John McGowan, professor of humanities at the University of North Carolina, states, after an extensive review of neoconservative literature and theory that neoconservative are attempting to build an American empire, seen as successor to the British Empire, its aim being to perpetuate a Pax Americana. As imperialism is largely seen as unacceptable by the American public, neoconservatives don't articulate their ideas and goals in a frank manner in public discourse. McGowan states, The open rift is often traced back to a 1981 dispute over Ronald Reagan's nomination of Mel Bradford, a Southerner, to run the National Endowment for the Humanities. Bradford withdrew after neoconservatives complained that he'd criticized Abraham Lincoln; the paleoconservatives supported Bradford.
Criticism in popular culture
Music
The Rolling Stones' song "Sweet Neo Con", from the A Bigger Bang album (2005), is critical of American Neoconservatism, with references to the Iraq War, Halliburton, George W. Bush, and Condoleezza Rice.
The Offspring's 2003 album, Splinter, included the song "Neocon". The song's lyrics, though defiant, are vague. However, it's generally assumed to be referring to George W. Bush, since The Offspring have been critical of him (both vocally and lyrically) in the past.
Pro-Pain has a song critical of neo-conservatives entitled, "Neo Con".
Related publications and institutions
Institutions
American Enterprise Institute
Bradley Foundation
Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Henry Jackson Society
Hudson Institute
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
American Israel Public Affairs Committee
Project for the New American CenturyPublications
Commentary
Weekly Standard
Democratiya
Magazines with neoconservatives
Front Page Magazine
The National Interest
National Review
Policy Review
The Public Interest
Further Information
Get more info on 'Neoconservative'.
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