The end of neoconservativism?

Francis Fukuyama writes in today's Guardian that "the neoconservative moment appears to have passed," and that neoconservativism is something he "can no longer support."

Fukuyama, who is Professor of International Political Economy at John's Hopkins University, became prominent with the publication in 1992 of The End of History. In this book, Fukuyama worshipped at the altar of liberal democracy and free-market capitalism, which he said, had emerged as the best political and economic models, while the collapse of the Soviet Union showed that Communism was flawed.

Neoconservative thinkers were influential on foreign policy during President George W. Bush's first term in office. It was neocons like Paul Wolfowitz and Fukuyama who sent an open letter to President Clinton urging him to invade Iraq and oust Saddam Hussein. Wolfowitz, who now heads the World Bank, is generally considered to be the architect of the Iraq war.

Robert Kagan, a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, sees the U.S. as a "benevolent empire," using its unprecedented military strength to liberate those living under oppressive regimes and to bring them democracy and capitalism. This idea is central to neoconservative thinking. Fukuyama now believes that "promoting democracy and modernisation in the Middle East is not a solution to jihadist terrorism," and that "the place of democracy promotion in American foreign policy...needs rethinking."

Many in the Bush administration expected the Iraqis to greet them with open arms, to throw flowers in the path of U.S. troops as they paraded through the newly liberated country. While there are Iraqi supporters of America's policies, it is evident that the U.S. campaign in Iraq is nowhere as successful as the Bush administration would have hoped.

"The U.S.," says Fukuyama, "needs to reframe its foreign policy...as a political contest for hearts and minds." It seems that the failure of American policy in Iraq is what has prompted him to speculate on the end of neoconservativism.

Read Fukuyama's Guardian piece here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1715180,00.html

For more on the neoconservatives, search this blog for "Project for the New American Century."