ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the task of assessing the overall record of the Bush administration in relation to international law has been hampered by a theoretical abyss between conceptions of US power and international law. The attitude of the Bush Administration towards international law as either a 'revolution' or as 'business as usual'. It proposes a means of overcoming this abyss before reaching its own conclusions as to whether there has been, and if so what the nature has been, of a Bush 'revolution' in the US relationship with international law. It is possible to reconcile a realist understanding of foreign policy with international law. International law enables us to appreciate that it may be possible to reconcile power and international law in our understanding of the rise of the United States, something that the writers on liberal hegemony have advocated. United State's focus has been on legitimacy and soft power -or, more provocatively, on unilateralism, domination and empire.
