American Neoconservatism : The Politics and Culture of a Reactionary Idealism

by Drolet, Jean-francois

• ISBN13: 9780231702287
• ISBN10: 0231702280
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-06-01
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

Jean-Fran#xE7;ois Drolet critically engages with the intellectual foundations of American neoconservatism. Blending international relations, political theory, and the history of ideas, his volume moves beyond debates over the George W. Bush administration's foreign policy, resting instead on the philosophical foundations that inform this "new" and immensely influential conservatism. Drolet reviews neoconservative discourses on a wide range of issues, such as democracy, capitalism, the liberal state, national security, international law, and global liberal governance. He highlights the systematic links between domestic and international forms of neoconservative political sociology. Challenging the movement's carefully crafted public image, Drolet defeats the claim that American neoconservatism is a centrist, "liberal" alternative to the right-wing establishment. Drolet firmly refutes the notion that neoconservatism is committed to the Enlightenment discourse on liberalism. Rather, he reveals an authoritarian form of cultural and philosophical conservatism that ferociously feeds on liberal values and practices. Drolet paints neoconservatism not as a conservative variant of liberalism but as an atavistic response to liberal modernity. He shows that the movement owes more to the authoritarian, intellectual milieu of interwar Europe than to the liberal tradition its practitioners allegedly hope to reform and protect.