Külügyi Szemle - A Magyar Külügyi Intézet folyóirata - 2008 (7. évfolyam)
2008 / 1. szám - ELMÉLET - Peterecz Zoltán: Az unilateralizmus az amerikai külpolitikában
Az unilateralizmus az amerikai külpolitikában 89 Samuel Huntington: „The Lonely Superpower". Foreign Affairs, Vol. 78. No. 2. (1999. március-április) 35-49. o. 90 Uo. 91 Fukuyama: i. m. 158. o. Sőt Fukuyama szerint ez az állapot már létezik is, 168. o. 92 Krauthammer: „Democratic Realism". 93 Fukuyama:;. in. 41. o. Résumé Unilateralism in American Foreign Policy The article focuses on the unilateralism of the United States. After a short survey of the United States history, which offers examples of unilateral steps right from the Monroe Doctrine through the Open Door Notes down to the Bush Doctrine, the study analyzes how this feature of American foreign policy and diplomacy came into being. The following constituting elements of unilateralism are discussed: exceptionalism, a leading characteristic of American culture, is tantamount to saying that what American democracy represents is the best possible form of a country, American values are above any other nation's, and when the United States acts on the international landscape, it is inherently right. The United States is the "hope" of mankind in their eyes, and they believe what they do is noble and is in the service of a better future for the whole world. They feel their rights and wishes should not and can not be curbed, even if they sometimes do step over the norms they set up. Since the United States possesses the most lethal and powerful military force ever, no one can hold the United States hostage: neither a terrorist group, neither a small rogue state, neither allies, nor the United Nations. This thinking and the conviction that the national interests of the United States come before anything else place the United States almost in opposition to most of the world, sometimes to its own allies. An important feature is that the conspicuous unilateralism of the Bush administration is nothing new, but Bill Clinton before Bush, and basically all the presidents in the twentieth century, shared the same idea: if the United States is of the opinion that it must act, no one can stop it. 2008. tavasz 115
