The end of the neocons? Jonathan Clarke

With the Bush Administration about to recede into history, a widely asked question is whether the neoconservative philosophy that underpinned its major foreign policy decisions will likewise vanish from the scene.

The answer seems likely to be Yes.

But the epitaph of neoconservatism has been written before - prematurely, as it turned out, in the 1980s.

Having been apparently headed for extinction at the end of the Reagan Administration a second generation emerged in the mid-1990s.

This was period of post-Cold War overwhelming US military dominance which the neocons anointed as the "unipolar moment". It acted as the incubator for the ideas of modern neoconservatism.

Bold ambition

The main characteristics of neoconservatism are:

• a tendency to see the world in binary good/evil terms
• low tolerance for diplomacy
• readiness to use military force
• emphasis on US unilateral action
• disdain for multilateral organisations
• focus on the Middle East