The Good,the Bad,and the Righteous: Understanding the Bush Vision of a New NATO Partnership

Abstract

This article analyzes the Bush administration's vision of NATO and its future development. Examining the statements of president Bush and other high-ranking US officials, the article explores the ways in which the administration's understanding of NATO is embedded in its vision of world politics as an epochal struggle between good and evil. While evil has assumed a variety of faces in the past, in today's world it is manifested as tyranny and terrorism. The restoration of humanity's birthright of freedom requires the faith and moral courage to eradicate, rather than accommodate or compromise with, this evil. For the Bush administration, this conception of an ongoing war between the righteous and the poor of spirit logically implies the need for widened membership in NATO, a new partnership with Russia, an expansion of the theater of struggle from Europe to the world, and a transformation of the alliance's military capabilities.