8
substitute for strategy. American internationalism should not mean action without vision,
activity without priority, and missions without end -- an approach that squanders
American will and drains American energy.”
5
Within the first six months, President Bush rescinded U.S. commitment to the
Kyoto Protocol on global warming, which was recently signed by all nations, excluding
the United States, the world’s top polluter. President Bush also withdrew from the Anti-
Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) and opposed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. In May
of 2002, the Bush administration renounced Clinton's signature of the Rome Protocol,
which established the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, as well as
prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The Bush administration
argues that the reason against U.S. involvement with the ICC is based on fear of
politically motivated prosecutions against American troops. The United States was on a
road to strengthen its military forces, and viewed international agreements as restraints on
U.S. power.
President Bush’s initial selection of Dick Cheney as Vice President, and the
decision to recruit former cabinet members of the previous Bush administration:
Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Stephen Hadley, would also
call into question the capacity of this administration to identify effectively and contend
with the priorities in this new century.
The core decision makers in the Bush
Administration had not served in office for eight years and were not in tune to the
dangers posed by al Qaeda and the new transnational threat.
As a result, the Bush
administration did not heed the policy recommendations of the Hart-Rudman
5
“A Distinctly American Internationalism” Speech Presented at Ronald Reagan Library, November 19,
1999.
Convention