Abstract
This dissertation aims to analyse how the American understanding of power in the post-Cold War environment shaped the foreign policies of the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. After considering the contested concept of power, this study evaluates US foreign policy power in terms of behavioural outcomes rather than the possession of material capabilities per se. In doing so, the dissertation draws on Joseph Nye’s distinction between hard, soft and smart power. The key parameters of the post-Cold War environment are identified and the application of US foreign policy power in that context is then weighed through the use of two case studies involving the administrations of Bill Clinton (1993-2001) and George W. Bush (2001-2009). The central finding which emerges from this investigation is that the US understanding of foreign policy power during the Clinton and Bush years was significantly shaped by domestic factors such as an enhanced consciousness of US moral standing and material superiority. But the prevalence of these domestic factors meant that both administrations experienced difficulties in adapting US foreign policy to the external constraints presented by an increasingly interconnected and complex post-Cold War global context. Given the mixed foreign policy record of the Clinton and Bush administrations in projecting US foreign policy power, it is argued America must move toward a more inclusive concept of power in the post-Cold War global environment if Washington wishes to more effectively relate its means to the goals of US foreign policy.