ABSTRACT
Recent events in the Middle East are a reminder that the United States has considerable security interests in the region. Since 9/11, U.S. policymakers have elaborated three separate foreign policies in their attempt to realize these interests. This paper argues that the Bush Doctrine, President Obama’s initial foreign policy, and the radically reworked foreign policy outlined by the same administration in the wake of the Arab Spring share a common deficiency: they misunderstand the nature of the Islamic resurgence and the impediments to liberalism present today in many parts of the Middle East.
