The U.S. Grand Strategy under George W. Bush: Drift from the Domestic Orientation

Abstract

This research article aims at analyzing the disruptive potential of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. mainland. These attacks were dubbed by thinkers as the mother of all events and this generation’s pearl harbor in attempts to chart out their disruptive magnitude. This disruption triggered a drift in the domestic orientation of George W. Bush who was not a foreign policy president. The changes that it caused can be traced at three distinct levels, individual, domestic and international. At the individual level it employs the psycho-attitudinal approach dubbed as the Operational Code Analysis. This method puts a premium on the decision makers’ schemata and how they influence their decision-making. Operational Code Analysis in this case suggests that initially the cooperative elements in the George W. Bush’s operational code were dominant but his operational code underwent a significant transformation as a result of the September 11 attacks.