Neo-conservatism has long struggled for the influence it now commands. It seeks to control mortal threats (real or imagined) before destruction is unleashed. The revolution in military affairs offered by Bush, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz was designed by Wohlstetter and friends at the Rand Institute in the 1970s; the neo-cons waited in the wings ever since. The two Gulf wars, Venezuela and Afghanistan have been the test phases of a 'new' strategic disposition. The UN, Nato, strategic alliances and military assets are being reshuffled to advance US power.
Why now? Globalisation, emerging rivals, economic weakness and multiculturalism menace. Alongside goods, services and wealth flow people, cultures and ideologies. This process has stretched inequalities - fuelling outrage, resistance and chaos. It also furnishes great fortunes and business opportunities. Neo-con anger feeds on the disorder, opposition, risk and danger that globalisation fosters. The flows of trade and wealth are embraced as civilising and positive. The proliferation of cultures and forms of resistance is hated and feared. Multilateral policy-making, perpetual compromise and tolerance of disorder and dysfunction are perceived to be lurking everywhere.
The neo-cons recommend impassioned reaction. They offer an alternative vision of globalisation in which the US takes control of a chaotic world. Opponents, rival ideas and rising powers are brought to heel.
The collapse of the USSR and the less developed state of EU and Chinese power offer a unique and fleeting opportunity - to be seized by force if necessary. The US can and must act to forestall the emergence of rival powers. Otherwise a flood of alien ideas, cultures and agendas will subvert US liberty, 'civilisation' and stability. Strength of purpose, economic primacy and a monopoly on military prowess can be used to harvest the good while restricting or destroying evil.
Modern America is open to this approach. Primed by a conservative corporate media and more than 20 years of rightward drift, Americans are profoundly frightened. They are scared of economic forces exporting good jobs, bringing waves of immigrants, lowering wages and raising global instability. The US middle class is under crushing pressure. Wages are not keeping up with spending. Debts are rising and profound insecurity besets personal, professional and financial life. The promises of new technologies and stock market wealth were false. The economy is weak and the 2000 presidential election called basic understandings of democracy into question. Rounds of corporate scandal tarnish captains of industry. The 11 September attacks and waves of arrests, rumours and threats terrify. Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, terror alerts and climbing unemployment keep fear levels high. Proliferating police power and receding civil liberty worry many.
Neo-cons offer a world remade. Media pundits and politicians share and feed off fear, offering neo-con foreign policy as the solution. But rival voices, most on the right, compete fiercely with the neo-cons; the latter do not sit alone at the tables of power. So, conservative Christian and business interests must be accommodated, thus convoluting and complicating policy.
