ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a theoretical explanation for Congress's stance on matters of national security during the Bush presidency and analyzes why the congressional attitude towards Bush's policies has shifted from compliance to resistance. If US hegemony gives the White House an incomparable freedom of action in the international system, and even if the Bush administration is prone to develop ambitious national security goals because it wants to protect the American homeland against terrorism, the power arrangements between the Congress and the president ensures a certain degree of restraint. Congressional compliance with George W. Bush's national security policy is explained by the combination of three variables: international, domestic and individual. More specifically, it was due to the tendency of members of Congress to perceive US national security as being endangered by terrorism, by Bush's high approval ratings in the United States, and by the absence of powerful 'foreign policy entrepreneur'.
