Leif Petter Sommerseth

Bush Administration's Global War on Terrorism and the Long-Term Security Goals of the United States Leif Petter Sommerseth

Publisher Marketing: This thesis tests the proposition of whether the US is pursuing contradictory short- and long-term objectives in its search for security after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Discussion begins with a review of perspectives on security before and after this watershed event. The physical threat to security appears to dominate US security calculus over the short-term, but the long-term picture is less clear. This thesis examines how President George W. Bush's approach to the Global War on Terrorism has won some victories, but also produced setbacks. While these have not been critical, the approach has done little to attack the root causes of terrorism. Superpower emphasis on the military instrument of power overlooks the importance of nation building and similar tasks that highlight cooperation in an international environment. This might be a viable approach in the short-term, but to assume that the US will continue to enjoy single superpower status in the long-term might be risky. This thesis argues that US short- and long-term security objectives could well be contradictory without a persistent emphasis on full congruence between means and ends and between instruments and objectives.