ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the geopolitical logic of the 'Bush doctrine' that drives the National Security Strategy of the United States of 2002 and subsequent policy statements. The detailed history of the thinkers and policy makers that dominated American policy in the first Bush administration, and who have subsequently reemerged from the think tank and corporate boardrooms to take up the reins of power once again, the 'Vulcans' in their self preferred terminology. The chapter explores the first Bush presidency to look at the debate then about what American strategy ought to be in the aftermath of the Cold War. Thinking about American hegemony in these terms is especially apt in an era that has been termed by many as a 'war on terror', an era presided over by the self-proclaimed 'war president' George W. Bush. America does not do nation building; it is not an empire after all, because it does not apparently conquer territory.
