Neocons

Extracted Attributes

• Origin

  United States

• Criticisms

  Aggressive militarism, neocolonialism

• Core Tenets

  Unilateral promotion of democracy, interventionism, militaristic foreign policy ('peace through strength'), opposition to communism and radical politics, strong military, preemptive action, American national interest

• Key Ideologues

  Bernard Lewis, Lulu Schwartz, Richard Pipes, Daniel Pipes, David Horowitz, Robert Kagan, Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, Bill Kristol

• Peak Influence

  George W. Bush presidency (2000s)

• Emergence Period

  1960s

• Political Affiliation

  Emerged from liberal hawks, gained significant influence in Republican presidential administrations

• Associated Think Tanks

  Project for a New American Century (PNAC), Foreign Policy Initiative

• Foundational Intellectual Platform

  Commentary magazine

Timeline

• Neoconservatism emerges in the United States among liberal hawks disillusioned with the Democratic Party's pacifism and the counterculture. (Source: Wikipedia)

  1960s

• Americans begin transitioning from the anti-Stalinist left to conservatism, forming the historical basis of neoconservatism. (Source: Wikipedia)

  1960s

• The Project for a New American Century (PNAC) is formed, becoming a founding group for a new wave of neoconservative foreign policy. (Source: web_search_results)

  1992

• Neoconservatism reaches its peak influence during the presidency of George W. Bush. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2000s

• Neoconservatives play a major role in promoting and planning the invasion of Iraq. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2003-03-20

• Some key figures associated with neoconservatism start the Foreign Policy Initiative. (Source: web_search_results)

  2009

• Neoconservatives call for a full-scale war and regime change in Iran, contrasting with Donald Trump's de-escalation efforts in the Israel-Iran conflict. (Source: Document 916f3392-52d1-41a3-9336-492ebf4e47a1)

  Recent

Neoconservatism

Neoconservatism (colloquially neocon) is a political movement which began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist Democratic Party along with the growing New Left and counterculture of the 1960s. Neoconservatives typically advocate the unilateral promotion of democracy and interventionism in international relations together with a militaristic and realist philosophy of "peace through strength". They are known for espousing opposition to communism and radical politics. Many adherents of neoconservatism became politically influential during Republican presidential administrations from the 1960s to the 2000s, peaking in influence during the presidency of George W. Bush, when they played a major role in promoting and planning the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Prominent neoconservatives in the Bush administration included Paul Wolfowitz, Elliott Abrams, Richard Perle, Paul Bremer, and Douglas Feith. Although U.S. vice president Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had not self-identified as neoconservatives, they worked closely alongside neoconservative officials in designing key aspects of the Bush administration's foreign policy; especially in their support for Israel, promotion of American influence in the Arab world and launching the war on terror. The Bush administration's domestic and foreign policies were heavily influenced by major ideologues affiliated with neoconservatism, such as Bernard Lewis, Lulu Schwartz, Richard and Daniel Pipes, David Horowitz, and Robert Kagan. Critics of neoconservatism have used the term to describe foreign policy and war hawks who support aggressive militarism or neocolonialism. Historically speaking, the term neoconservative refers to Americans who moved from the anti-Stalinist left to conservatism during the 1960s and 1970s. The movement had its intellectual roots in the magazine Commentary, edited by Norman Podhoretz. They spoke out against the New Left, and in that way helped define the movement.

Web Search Results

• Neo-Conservatism - Political Ideologies In Action

  Neoconservatism (commonly shortened to neocon) is a political movement born in the United States during the 1960s among conservative-leaning Democrats who became disenchanted with the party's foreign policy. The term "neoconservative" refers to those who made the ideological journey from the anti-Stalinist Left to the camp of American conservatism. Neoconservatives typically advocate the promotion of democracy and American national interest in international affairs, including by means of [...] conservative publication, National Review, on a variety of topics. [...] military force and are known for espousing disdain for communism and for political radicalism.

• Neoconservatism | EBSCO Research Starters

  Neoconservatism is a political ideology primarily associated with the advocacy of a strong military and an interventionist foreign policy aimed at spreading democratic values globally. Emphasizing the use of American military power to address perceived threats, neoconservatives, often referred to as "neocons," believe in preemptive action to protect U.S. interests. The movement emerged in the late 20th century, with influential figures like Irving Kristol, who is regarded as its "godfather," [...] Neoconservatism is a political ideology primarily associated with the advocacy of a strong military and an interventionist foreign policy aimed at spreading democratic values globally. Emphasizing the use of American military power to address perceived threats, neoconservatives, often referred to as "neocons," believe in preemptive action to protect U.S. interests. The movement emerged in the late 20th century, with influential figures like Irving Kristol, who is regarded as its "godfather," [...] occur. The term and its underlying ideology are difficult to define, however, in part because neoconservative values have shifted since the term was first introduced. People who identify as neoconservatives, informally called "neocons," display a wide range of political views and opinions that do not always align. These features lead some to classify neoconservatism more as a sentiment or a general worldview than a systematized school of political thought.

• The Impact of Neoconservative Think Tanks on American Foreign ...

  The neocons still represent the strongest foreign policy faction in the GOP. They are allied with the Christian Right, which is lacking its own foreign policy strategy. The neocons are rooted in the Pentagon and the arms industry. Their network in think tanks, government agencies, economy, and media such as Fox News will not diminish in the coming years. In 2009, some of the same people started the Foreign Policy Initiative. Many of Romney’s key advisers have been drawn from this network and [...] In the enforcement of the Pax Americana, neocons were willing to approve tensions in diplomacy and international law: not the entire UN, but its perception as fundament of the ‘new world order’ would fall. From their perspective, this was a liberal illusion that the UN Security Council could exclusively legitimize the use of force or guarantee peace through international law in cooperation with other organizations (Halper and Clarke 40-47). Moreover, neocons feared that the international [...] contagious. America’s military presence would have, according to neocons, a sobering effect on the authoritarian regimes in the region. The neocons, however, primarily made the same observations, like all proponents of earlier foreign policy doctrines, about the frailness of their abstract theories to real events. The Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya proved the veracity of their assumptions after years of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and months-long air attacks to oust Gaddafi from

• neoconservatism summary - Britannica

  neoconservatism, U.S. political movement. It originated in the 1960s among conservatives and some liberals who were repelled by or disillusioned with what they viewed as the political and cultural trends of the time, including leftist political radicalism, lack of respect for authority and tradition, and hedonistic and immoral lifestyles. Neoconservatives generally advocate a free-market economy with minimum taxation and government economic regulation; strict limits on government-provided [...] social-welfare programs; and a strong military supported by large defense budgets. Neoconservatives also believe that government policy should respect the importance of traditional institutions such as religion and the family. Unlike most conservatives of earlier generations, neoconservatives maintain that the United States should take an active role in world affairs, though they are generally suspicious of international institutions, such as the United Nations and the World Court, whose

• The Rise of Neoconservative Foreign Policy | Department of English

  Neoconservatism is a nationalist ideology that originated in the 1990s, rooted in the history of American exceptionalism, that advocates for aggressive assertions of U.S. political and military power in strategic areas in order to promote democracy and liberalism (Rojecki; Monten). What has not been explored in great depth, and what I will undertake, is the extent to which the media facilitated the rising popularity of neoconservatism. [...] The ideology of neoconservatism that embedded itself in the Bush administration’s foreign policy began in the 1990s. The founding group for this new wave of neoconservative foreign policy came from the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), a think tank formed in 1992. According to the organization itself, PNAC is based on a few fundamental propositions that assert the belief that American leadership is good for both America and for the world. In the words of Bill Kristol, who acted as [...] vigorous and principled policy of American international involvement” (Miller 12). Every ideology has a birth, and the conception of neoconservatism occurred with the formation of PNAC. Although the ideology rose in the 1990s, it did not find a way into official U.S. foreign policy positions until the second Bush administration, where it rapidly became the dominant foreign policy approach.