THE CRUSADE FOR FREEDOM: A JUST WAR CRITIQUE OF THE BUSH DOCTRINE

This paper critically examines the Bush Doctrine in American foreign policy. It describes the crusading spirit of the Bush Doctrine and its connection with American Exceptionalism, with a special focus on the Bush administration's policy statements. It then uses the theoretical framework of the just war tradition to argue against this new sort of crusading idealism and its eschatological aim of transforming the world through military force. The paper argues that the just war tradition is grounded in theological and anthropological assumptions that give us reason to reject all crusading idealisms, even the idealism of American exceptionalism.