Neoconservatism has long had a tenuous relationship with International Relations theory. Despite an abundance of explanatory material and its influence in US foreign policy, few works in IR have attempted to build a stand-alone theory out of it. Furthermore, previous work on the topic has resulted in an under-developed and poor understanding of the movement’s core ideas. The thesis redefines neoconservatism as a trifecta of i) a set of explanatory ideas on world politics, ii) an approach to foreign policy, and iii) an ideology that stems from the European Enlightenment, all the way to the present day. Using this expanded conceptualization, the thesis builds a theory out of what can broadly be considered an ideology. The theory takes the form of an ideal-type construct and emphasizes hegemony in the international system. It offers an explanation for the causes of alliances, as well as regional and systemic conflicts. The theory also adopts a prescriptive function and offers an account of foreign policy analysis. It is highly recommended that the assumptions of the theory that are laid out here be tested in future work.

Diese Dissertation analysiert den Zusammenhang von neokonservativer Logik und der Idee des „American Decline“ in der außenpolitischen Debatte der USA von den 1960er-Jahren bis 2021 mit einem Fokus auf der Obama-Präsidentschaft (2009-17). Unter Anwendung der Imperiumstheorie untersucht sie Texte führender neokonservativer Plattformen und Denker_innen, die sich mit dem Wesen, den Aufgaben, den Kosten, dem Nutzen und der Zukunft amerikanischer Weltmacht befassen. Die Studie enthüllt die Niedergangsidee als einen integralen Bestandteil der neokonservativen Logik, der US-Superiorität legitimiert und stabilisiert. Sie vermittelt den Amerikaner_innen einen höheren Zweck und Orientierung, unterdrückt aber alternative Pfade für die Vereinigten Staaten durch die Gleichsetzung von US-Superiorität mit Weltordnung. / This dissertation examines the relationship between neoconservative logic and the idea of „American Decline” in the U.S. foreign policy debate from the 1960s until 2021 with a focus on the Obama presidency (2009-17). Building on imperial theory, the project analyses texts from leading neoconservative platforms and thinkers, dealing with the nature, tasks, costs, benefits and future of American world power. The study reveals the idea of decline as integral to neoconservative logic, as an element that legitimizes and stabilizes U.S. superiority. It provides Americans with a sense of mission and orientation and suppresses alternative paths for the United States due to its equation of U.S. superiority with world order.

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Le nouveau conservatisme noir voit le jour dans les années 1975-1980 et s’impose comme une idéologie singulière, représentée par une élite intellectuelle (Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Glenn Loury, Stephen L. Carter) graduellement institutionnalisée dans l’establishment conservateur. L’initiative personnelle, le self-help et le rejet des programmes politiques libéraux constituent les axes majeurs de cette doctrine. Les néoconservateurs afro-américains manifestent une grande confiance dans les principes économiques du libre-échange et rejettent l’interventionnisme d’État en faveur de la communauté raciale. L’attaque contre l’affirmative action s’accompagne du plaidoyer pour l’instauration de la norme de color blindness. Les actions entreprises dans le but de mettre un terme aux traitements préférentiels accordés aux minorités et aux femmes sont attentivement organisées par les acteurs de la droite américaine. Un réseau bien coordonné d’individus, des fondations conservatrices, organisations et groupes de réflexion se consacre à la promotion des stratégies color blind. Ward Connerly, homme d’affaires noir de Californie, est à la tête du mouvement pour l’abolition des traitements préférentiels accordés aux minorités et aux femmes. Bénéficiant d’un soutien fort de la part des institutions conservatrices, ses campagnes contre la politique préférentielle se concrétisent dans les États de Californie, du Washington, du Michigan et du Nebraska. / The new Black Conservatism emerges between 1975-1980 and is considered as a unique ideology. Its major representatives are intellectuals (Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Glenn Loury, Stephen L. Carter) who are gradually “institutionalized” and integrated into the conservative establishment. Personal initiative, self-help and the contestation of liberal political programs represent the major axes of this ideology. Black neoconservatives greatly rely on the principles of free market economics and reject state interventionism in favor of the African-American community. Their attack on affirmative action is accompanied by attempts at instituting color blind politics. Actions undertaken in order to outlaw preferential treatment granted to minorities and women constitute a carefully organized operation. A well coordinated network of individuals, conservative foundations, organizations and think tanks are connected in this process and dedicate their efforts to advancing a color blind agenda. Ward Connerly, a black businessman from California, leads the movement for the abolition of preferential treatments granted to women and minorities. With the help of conservative institutions, his campaigns against preferential treatment put a ban of affirmative action in the States of California, Washington, Michigan and Nebraska.

Essay in Political Science, Advanced Course, by Christoffer Hagström “The Bush Administration´s view on international cooperation and international law and political-theoretical traditions influence on the administration´s foreign policy” Supervisor: Jan Olsson The purpose of this paper is to analyze the American foreign policy, particularly with regard to international cooperation and international law. The two following research-questions are used in order to fulfil the purpose: (1) what is the Bush-administrations´s view of of the place for international cooperation and international law in American foreign policy?, and (2) how does the administration´s foreign policy correspond to dominant political-theoretical thought-traditions? The traditions used are: liberalism, realism and neoconservatism. The sources of the study mostly include literature and policy-documents. The author conducts qualitative and quantitative content analysis of the Bush-administration´s policy document National Security Strategy of the United States from March 2006. First the document is summarized based on different criteria followed by categorizations of ideas connected with realism, liberalism and neoconservatism in the document. In the quantative analysis value-words that are appropriate for the various traditions is chosen. The frequency of those words can be seen as indications of the influence of the traditions in the thoughts of the Bush-administration, but is mostly seen as a complement to the qualtative analysis. The main conclusions of the paper are that the Bush-administration most often wish to act according to international law and to cooperate with other actors internationally in the long run, it may even be necessary. In the short run however, it may act outside the parameters of international organizations and international law in order to accomplish foreign policy-goals. Matters related to the security of the American state and people is considered much more important than international cooperation and law. Liberalism seems to be the tradition that has most affected the Bush-administration´s foreign policy. It is followed shortly thereafter by realism and neoconservatism seems to have had the least influence on the the thought-traditions. All of the them has been active in the making of the foreign policy.

of Ph.D. thesis: Middle Eastern Conflict in the French Public Space (2000-2010) Václav Nekvapil, 2013 The main objective of the thesis is to analyse and typologise French social discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on a reflection of certain opinions, interests, stances and values associated with today's Jewishness and Jewish diasporic identity. The research also contains an analysis of the official political-diplomatic discourse of both Presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy. Based on the methodology of typologisation and critical discourse analysis, we distinguish three basic positions related to the debate on the abovementioned topics in the years 2000- 2010: republican, anti-imperialist and neoconservative. The thesis elaborates on attitudes of presidents of the French Fifth Republic towards Israel and how their policies have been perceived by the Jewish community. The community as such is also a matter of the research: its changing religiosity, demography, immigration of Nord African Jewry and the attitude towards Zionism and the State of Israel. The thesis follows four main thematic axes when analysing arguments of the most important speakers. First, when analysing the duty of memory (devoir de mémoire), the author carefully examines moral argumentation concerning the...

While few would deny America is the most powerful nation on earth, there is considerable debate, and controversy, over how America uses its foreign policy power. This is even truer since the “unipolar moment,” when America gained sole superpower status with the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War. In the Cold War Reinhold Niebuhr was the main theological voice speaking to American power. In the Unipolar world, the Religious right emerged as the main theological voice, but instead of seeking to curb American power the Religious right embraced Neoconservatism in what I will call “Totemic Conservatism” to support use of America's power in the world and to triumph Manifest destiny in American foreign policy, which is the notion that America is a chosen nation, and this legitimizes its use of power and underpins its moral claims. I critique the Niebuhrian and Religious right legacies, and offer a classical realist strategy for theology to speak to America power and foreign policy, which avoids the neoconservative and religious conservative error of totemism, while avoiding the jettisoning of Niebuhr's theology by political liberals, and, the political ghettoizing of theology by his chief critics. This strategy is based on embracing the understanding of classical realism, but not taking the next step, which both Niebuhr and neoconservativism ultimately do, of moving from a prescriptive to a predictive strategy for American foreign policy. In this thesis, I argue that in the wake of the unipolar moment the embrace of the Religious right of Neoconservatism to triumph Manifest destiny in American foreign policy is a problematic commingling of faith and politics, and what is needed instead is a strategy of speaking to power rooted in classical realism but one which refines Niebuhrian realism to avoid the risk of progressing a Constantinian theology.