(Editor's note: This is the third in a series of articles examing the prospects and promises of President-elect George W. Bush. Everyday this week, leading up to Saturday's inauguration, The Dartmouth will consider a major issue that Bush will have to address during his presidency.)
Though during his campaign some questioned President-elect George W. Bush's qualifications in the foreign policy realm, his commitment and capability in this area now appear more solid as he has surrounded himself with notoriously competent foreign affairs advisors.
Vice President-elect Dick Cheney is perhaps the most prominent of an army of military-reform minded experts who backed Bush's presidential bid and will assist him over the next four years.
Cheney's influence led Bush to promise to take on the task of attempting to reform the American military into a more agile and high-tech institution.
Additionally, the appointment of "American hero" General Colin Powell, who is highly experienced in foreign policy, leads to speculation that Powell might actually be the one steering American foreign affairs throughout the upcoming administration.
Not since General George Marshall has someone of Powell's prestige become Secretary of State, and accordingly, Powell is expected to be the 'star' of Bush's cabinet.
Powell brings not only a broad base of experience to the job, but a story straight out of the American dream. Political analysts have said the real question, however, is what he will do once he has the world's attention in his new role.
Powell has said he will espouse a "uniquely American internationalism ... [to be] an inspiration to a world that wants to be free."
Powell is inherently linked to the "Powell Doctrine," a loosely defined term suggesting that U.S. military should be used for vital national interests, and if there is a high probability of success.
He has consistently supported lessening overseas troop deployment, a view that has garnered criticism from liberal voices over the past decade.
"Lives must not be risked until we can face a parent or a spouse or a child with a clear answer to the question of why a member of that family had to die," Powell said in a previous interview.
Powell's belief in conservative overseas involvement seems, on the surface, more isolationist than Bush's campaign rhetoric, which has been considered by many to represent a shift from the engagement policies of the Clinton administration.
Despite his more isolationist outlook, however, Bush embraced free trade and American engagement abroad throughout his campaign. He has said he will avoid the temptation to "build a proud tower of protectionism and isolation," dispelling worries that his administration will begin a movement toward a more detached world policy.
Bush has also insisted that over the next four years he will work to renew emphasis on specific major priorities including relations with Russia and China, weapons proliferation and nuclear weapons security.
The foreign policy of the Clinton administration has been perceived as less specific than Bush's plans, dealing more with large-scale ideas than individual priorities.
Foreign policy experts argue whether Clinton's record can actually be considered a single coherent policy. As the first president in half a century to serve his entire tenure in a world not dominated by the Cold War, Clinton is seen by many to have encountered difficulty in bringing focus to the country's mission abroad.
If history serves as a predictor, Bush will likely benefit from Congress's propensity in the past to work more easily with Republican presidents in developing foreign policy agendas.
"Our first order of business is the national security of our nation. And here both the United States and Russia face a changed world. Instead of confronting each other, we confront the legacy of a dead ideological rivalry: thousands of nuclear weapons, which in the case of Russia may not be secure," Bush said in a Nov. 1999 speech that gave a hint about one of the issues he plans to focus on.
Bush also supports deploying a national missile defense, a goal that may conflict with his desire to redefine the United States' relationship with Russia.
Bush's plans, however, are in defiance of the Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty signed by both the U.S. and Russia.
Bush has said that he plans to overcome this hurdle by "[offering] Russia the necessary amendments to the anti-ballistic missile treaty -- an artifact of Cold War confrontation. Both sides know that we live in a different world from 1972, when that treaty was signed. If Russia refuses the changes we propose, we will give prompt notice, under the provisions of the treaty, that we can no longer be a party to it," he said in September.
