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George Bush Multilateralism

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In the days surrounding president George W. Bush’s address to the United Nations regarding the political climate in Iraq, Washington had become a whirlpool of two different approaches: unilateralism and multilateralism. After an attempt to appeal to both sides in Washington with his initial address to the UN, George Bush’s action of waging an arguably unjustified war against Iraq without assistance from the United Nations can ultimately be explained using realist theory.
The dominant approach supported by Bush’s Republican party was unilateralism. Assuming the Republicans led by Cheney and Rumsfeld were truly under the impression that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, while also having ties to international terrorist groups, their wishes were not irrational. The unilateralists felt that every day the United States did not act was another day closer to an attack like 9/11. The main idea behind realism is that war is inevitable, and that the number one …show more content…

Liberalism is centered around the ideal that peace is maintained through policy, rather than war. In the eyes of a regulatory liberalist, international organizations can peacefully facilitate conflicts before they turn into war. Powell urged Bush to seek the UN security council’s assistance in re-administering nuclear inspections teams within Iraq. The idea was that the inspections teams would find monitor Iraqi facilities to keep Hussein under control. If Saddam did not agree, then war could be waged. The key is seeking alternative means of promoting peace before waging a costly war. Under republican liberalism, democratic states do not wage war under the premise that the citizens pay the costs of war. The multilateralists knew the war and reconstruction of Iraq would be very demanding. With this in mind, they felt it was in the US’s best interest if members of the United Nations shared the

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