Political Science

In his speech before the cadets at the nations premier military training institution, President Barack Obama reiterated the reasons that members of Americas military are about to launch themselves  into a conflict aimed at paralyzing the instigators of one of the most ruthless terrorist organizations on the planet. But Obama was quick to point out that the conflict they are  forced  to fight was not one of their own choosing, citing the hijacking of four American planes and using them as bombs that claimed more than 3,000 American lives, more if not for the efforts of passengers on one of the flights, despite the knowledge that they themselves will be killed, saved more for getting killed or injured on that star-crossed day. In his speech, Obama cited the provisions of the NATO treaty, that the attacks on one of the members of the alliance was deemed as an assault on all the members of the organization. At home, Obama pointed out that the Congress, both houses, voted overwhelmingly to use military action against the members of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization, 420 to 1 and 98 to 0, in the House and Senate, respectively.

In his speech, Obama claimed that as a result of sending American troops into Afghanistan, the Al-Qaeda terrorist group is in fast retreat and that the attacks were made with the end goal of giving the people of Afghanistan a reason for hoping after decades of a brutal Soviet occupation and several more under the radical Taliban regime, a known supporter of the Al-Qaeda in the region. That the government in Afghanistan be restored and strengthened to be able to lead the nation once the Americans pull out of the country, this remains in the opinion of President Obama to be one of the strategic goals of the occupation of the country and ward off any remaining threats to the elected government of President Hamid Karzai.

In the implementation of the war against terrorism, President George W. Bush misappropriated the use of a doctrine that was heralded as a  progressive theory in international relations-liberalism or liberal internationalism- to justify sending over thousands of American military personnel in a unilateral fashion. Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration and the conservative foreign policy that was crafted had one clear goal, that of fighting terrorism, effectively address any imminent threat to the security of the nation and affirm the position of the United States that they can act in a unilateral fashion to address these issues.

But what is liberalism In the book Understanding International Relations , the author Brown defines the theory as the adaption of a broad set of liberal political structures to manage the international system (para.). Or in another definition, LiberalismLiberal Internationalism is based on the innate goodness of the people, favoring the free exercise of civil as well as political freedoms, espousing a government of laws that is formed with the approval of the governed and freedom from arbitrary authority. In the aftermath of the end of the Cold War, liberal internationalism has been on the upsurge in recent times as the new set of Western academics  and members of the higher echelon of politics seek to discover avenues by which to manage the world in an ever expanding global era.

In comparison with other theories in international relations, we must seek to dissect the speech given by President Obama at West Point. In his speech at the Point, Obama mentioned that the offensive initiated by the United States was taken under the auspices of international unity buttressing his argument with the invocation of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, stating that an attack on one member of the group constitutes  an attack on all the members of the organization. The NATO provision was built on the argument that an attacking force was taking territory from the aggrieved nation, hence commanding the attention of the NATO in asking for assistance to  fend off the aggressor. But the conflict is not pictured in the context of the NATO definition for the invocation of Article 5 as supported by the 51st Article of the Charter of the United Nations. If these elements were all found in the speech given by President Obama, then the applicable theory would be that of  collective defense .

Though many realists have rebuffed the concept of liberalism as a type of idealism, the principle has enjoyed a renewed focus especially after the Gulf conflict and the collapse of the principle of Communism in the defunct Soviet Union. The theory of liberal internationalism stands on the premise that  international relations will acquiesce itself with the models of freedom, peace and prosperity that is found within the models practiced in the United States. But an expansion of the influence of one country and its practices unto another would be defined as imperialism.

In the terminology of the political arena, the term is called  Pax Americana , or roughly translated to  Peace Americana . In the opinion of Council of Foreign Relations-based neoconservative author Max Boot, the deployment of American troops to Afghanistan, or to any foreign shore, as stated in the so called Bush Doctrine, is actually attempt to take to the global stage the tenets of the Monroe Doctrine. In the provisions of Monroe, the declaration was designed in an effort to affirm the authority of Washington over the Americas. This was supported by the 1904 Corollary of then President Theodore Roosevelt, stating therein that Washington reserved the right to address any threat that it deems so.

Again in reference to the West Point speech of President Obama, the President averred that the goal of the Afghan military action is that of turning over the country to that governmental structure, and that America has no interest in staying or occupying the country longer than what is deemed responsible. That would fall into another factor of liberalism, that of espousing a government of laws elected by the Afghan people. In the assumption of the principle of liberalism as endorsed by then United States President Woodrow Wilson, this is the base in which Wilson anchored his Fourteen Points for the First World War.

As the theory of Liberal Internationalism dealt with the issues in the aftermath of the first global conflict, they discussed the practice of Liberalism in that context and to come up with a set of factors drafted to avert another war. The first issue, and another part of the definition of the liberalism theory, is that it believes in the inherent goodness of the people. That is the issue of politics on a domestic scale. One of the basic and integral tenets in the belief of Liberalism is that people will avoid war at all costs people are engaged in conflict only as a result of their leaders who are hawks, or their desires for nationhood are being blocked by imperialist, autocratic and non democratic forces.

It is stated that the neoconservative policies employed by the Bush administration in the conduct of American foreign policy has been nothing short than a gargantuan failure, even by neoconservatives themselves. The previous foreign policy, as earlier stated, was nothing more than the expansion of the Monroe Doctrine, based on a global hegemony, a blatant disregard for international laws and a change of government using military force. In the definition of the schools of thought of liberal internationalism, there are the democratic hegemonists and the liberal imperialists.

The second issue in the discussion of Liberal Internationalism is that of the framework of global international structures. In the context of the first global conflict, the premise is that the chaotic structures before the war did not help in the contribution to the achievement of peace. There was not operating principle in that era except for the concept of the balance of power-  a concept that operated in the realm of political power. In the theory, this surmises that swift changes in the power and status of nations- as when one country invades another-will have a counterbalancing effect, thus the maintenance of that balance will ensure the stability of the relations of the states.

Liberalism believes in the application of the rule of constitutional government and the supremacy of the law as basic facets that is levied upon domestic politics and the international framework . Obamas decision to deploy 30,000 more military personnel is founded on Liberalism, in that the American Commander-in-Chief is believes that the action is inclined on the tenets of the chosen theory. It believes that the Afghan people are inherently good, that they were forced into this war by the Al-Qaeda, that the ultimate goal is the creation of a government based on laws. This government will be selected by the people, thus giving their approval for the government. Lastly they will be liberated from the tyrannical rule of those who are only after power and not the welfare of the people.