Insight into the Bush Doctrine: the beliefs and images behind the Foreign Policy of George W. Bush

The Bush Doctrine has transformed American foreign policy and impacted the international state system, and in this paper I demonstrate that understanding President George W. Bush’s beliefs and images of the world can help explain why and how the doctrine came into being. Blending cognitive psychology and foreign policy decision making theory, I argue that President Bush’s perception and ability to process information have been shaped by his beliefs and images of the world, ultimately influencing his foreign policy decisions. I identify four primitive beliefs: religious, philosophical, political, and personal, that are central to President Bush’s belief-disbelief system. I argue that these primitive beliefs underlie the Bush Doctrine, and that they have generated significant consequences for the Bush administration, American foreign policy, and the international state system.