The end of the neo-conservative moment

In the past two years, a set of hard-line, fundamentalist ideas have taken Washington by storm and provided the intellectual rationale for a radical post-11 September reorientation of American foreign policy. But this new fundamentalism has turned into a costly misadventure. As a grand strategic approach to global leadership, it has failed. It is hard to think of another instance in American diplomatic history where a strategic wrong turn has done so much damage to the country's international position - its prestige, credibility, security partnerships and the goodwill of other countries - in such a short time, with so little to show for it. A single-minded American campaign against terrorism and rogue states in which countries are either 'with us or against us' and bullied into support is not leadership but a geostrategic wrecking ball that will destroy America's own half-century old international architecture. Long after the new fundamentalist thinking fades away, American diplomats will be repairing the damaged relations and political disarray it wrought.