As 'Neocons' Leave, Bush Foreign Policy Takes Softer Line
Ms. Rice Changes Approach To Iran and North Korea; Democracy Still Key Goal
Cheney's Waning Influence?
By JAY SOLOMON and NEIL KING JR.
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
February 6, 2006; Page A1
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In the past year, the ranks of the neoconservatives within the administration who molded the American response to 9/11 have grown thin and their influence has ebbed. At the same time, a band of "neorealists" has been gaining power. They share the neoconservatives' belief in the importance of spreading democracy, but not their conviction that Washington can go it alone on the international stage. The neorealists favor working more closely with allies and with the United Nations, particularly in responding to Iran's nuclear program.
The change coincides with the growing influence of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is putting her stamp on foreign policy in the second term much as neoconservatives did in the first term. The slow progress of the war in Iraq has made it harder for the U.S. to execute a hard-line foreign policy and has undercut the arguments of the war's chief advocates, such as Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whose views often dovetailed with the neoconservatives, current and former government officials say. Mr. Cheney also has been hampered by the loss of his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was indicted in October for allegedly lying to prosecutors about his role in disclosing a Central Intelligence Agency operative's identity. Mr. Libby was a neoconservative coordinator and intellectual conduit inside the White House.
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The foreign-policy shift is occurring, in part, because Ms. Rice is a more effective bureaucratic infighter than was her predecessor, Colin Powell. Her relationship with the president dates back to the early days of the 2000 presidential campaign. She has taken to the State Department an influence over foreign policy she built when working in the White House during the first term. Mr. Bush has chosen to allow Ms. Rice to pursue a more multilateral foreign policy than he allowed Mr. Powell. During his first term and his re-election campaign, Mr. Bush openly snubbed European allies over Iraq, and said he didn't do "nuance."
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The most recent sign of a shift in the administration's tone came last week in London. After an intense day of diplomacy, Ms. Rice brokered a compromise agreement among Russia, China, France and Britain for the International Atomic Energy Agency to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for allegedly violating commitments to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Over the weekend, nearly all other IAEA member countries endorsed the agreement. Ms. Rice's aides came away touting the efficacy of the U.N. and the IAEA -- organizations disdained by Bush aides three years ago in the run-up to the Iraq invasion. The original neoconservatives were mainly former liberals who feared the U.S. was going soft on Communism and who supported Ronald Reagan's defense buildup and confrontation with the Soviet Union. Neoconservative has since come to refer to a brand of foreign policy that advocates promoting democracy abroad, unilaterally and with military force, if necessary.
During his first term, President Bush broke from the foreign-policy line espoused by his father, whose "realist" strategists embraced alliances and stability over moral and ideological causes. In the younger Mr. Bush's administration, national-security strategists in the Pentagon and White House argued that U.S. interests would be best served by fostering democracy, rather than by seeking an old-fashioned balance of power. They pushed for hard-line policies toward North Korea, Iran and China, and expressed distrust of international bodies seen as constraining American power. Mr. Bush spurned the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and the International Criminal Court, and there was tension with allies over Iraq.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113917770993565451.html (subscription)
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