The Clinton doctrine?

There was such a thing? Well any one leading a superpower in a turbulent period that was the 1990s, would have created some sort of foreign policy. His detractors believe that no doctrine existed.

To say that a Clinton doctrine was absent over the period 1993-2001 is not fully correct. From inauspicious beginnings, a range of foreign policy doctrines emerged but they often lacked coherence, or were flawed in their implementation. Three strands of foreign policy doctrine developed, directly influenced by the condition of the international system: enlargement; interventionism; containment of rogue states. However Clinton’s personal failings, plus difficulties within his administration; domestic factors and the practical implementation of these doctrines led to an often incoherent and ineffective foreign policy.

Clinton’s administration, elected three years after the end of the Cold War, was born in an international system described as unipolar and also uni-multipolar – one superpower and several major powers. The United States was pre eminent in this new era, in terms of economic, military, diplomatic, ideological, technological and cultural power. Major regional powers below held limited pre eminence but lacked the US global reach. Below this, lay secondary regional powers. A similar interpretation shows the United States, at the top level, as unipolar militarily; multipolar at an economic level; but below this, power is dispersed across borders and outside control of governments. Regional and ethnic conflicts could be included in this bottom level. Conflicts that had been simmering in the Cold war but fitted in rigid alliance structures had greater potential to develop under these new conditions. Lines in conflicts would be drawn between civilizations with threats from the Middle East and West Asia. The period also saw further globalisation and interdependence between states; the rise of non-state actors; transnational actors (multinational corporations, NGOs) and international actors (United Nations, World Trade Organisation, European Union).

Despite historic events – the collapse of communism and the Gulf War – taking place in the previous three years, the 1992 US election focused on economic issues. Foreign policy was an element of Clinton’s campaign and in televised debates he exhibited a tough stance on Bosnia and China, but domestic policy was his priority. Faced with inherited and emerging international issues but with no desire for active foreign policy, the Clinton administration was hesitant in adopting a strategy.

This is an abstract from my first essay of the year.