Bush doctrine x Obama doctrine: a comparative analysis regarding the fight against international terrorism

• Grant number: 14/12386-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2014
• End date: December 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - International Politics
• Principal Investigator: Cristina Soreanu Pecequilo
• Grantee: Clarissa Nascimento Forner
• Host Institution: Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Osasco. Osasco , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In 2014, US President Barack Obama (2009/2014) made an official statement in which he determined the extension of the stabilization mission in Afghanistan till 2016. The President´s decision represented a change of path in the known goals so far (in which the end of the transition was scheduled to 2014) and also brought into question the real end of the so called Global War on Terror (GWT) that started during the term of former President George W. Bush (2001/2008). Considering this context, this research aims to promote a comparative analysis of George. W Bush´s republican government and Barack Obama´s democrat one in the United States, regarding their strategies in the fight against international terrorism, by identifying its differences and similarities. The starting point of the research are the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the disclosure of the 2002 National Security Strategy (Bush Doctrine), from which we will analyse the changes in US foreign policy due to the terrorist threat and the content of its strategic and defense plans until nowadays. Also, we intend to analyse how the principles of George W. Bush´s agenda influenced Barack Obama´s government, even though this President attempted to distance itself from the priorities of the former administration. In order to develop this study, we present an initial assessment of the 2001 attacks and a comparative analysis of the National Security Strategies and Defense plans, the Quadrennial Defense Review, of both governments. The choice of this issue study relates to the perception that the military and preventive content of the policies adopted in Bush´s son government are significant for the understanding of the strategy put forward by the Obama administration in the current fight against terrorism, despite rhetorical and tactical changes. (AU)