ABSTRACT
It might be tempting to conclude that the advent of the G.W. Bush administration, and especially the impetus provided by the attacks of 9/11, marked a clear end to the period and structures described in the last two chapters. In some eyes, and indeed in the declarations of some of the US administration’s most prominent foreign policy players, a return to ‘realism’, a stress on ‘hard’ power and the rhetoric of a harsh Realpolitik, were to be the defining marks of a new era in American foreign policy. There is little doubt that things have changed since the decade immediately following the end of the Cold War. However, while the security landscape of the past several years has changed in significant ways, the themes pursued in this study – the relationship between ‘culture’ and security, and the significance of symbolic power – remain essential in understanding the contemporary situation.
