America's world

In the land of Doonesbury, George W. Bush has changed hats.

Once a voice from under a Stetson, the American president in the Garry Trudeau comic strip now speaks from under a Roman soldier's feathered metal helmet.

The wardrobe change reflects the new interest in an American empire as the United States wrestles with securing and rebuilding Iraq - its largest military endeavor since Vietnam, and (before that) Germany and Japan.

But the cowboy-to-centurion satirical shorthand also symbolizes the changes - large and small - that are part of a profound shift in American foreign policy in the two years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The evidence is everywhere: From a new national security doctrine of preemptive strikes to college campuses where Arabic classes are overflowing and British professors schooled in the art of empire maintenance are hot commodities.

"We can now see that Sept. 11 brought about a sea change in American foreign policy," says Lee Hamilton, a keen observer of America's global relations during 34 years in Congress and now as director of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. "Antiterrorism and the necessity of preventing dangerous weapons from getting into the wrong hands are a paramount part of our foreign policy now, and will be for a long time under any kind of president. The attacks were so horrific," he adds, "that any administration would have had to move this to the top of the agenda."

But the US strategy - now and in the coming years - will pivot on how well it manages the tasks in Iraq, say analysts. As President Bush declared Sunday night, "Iraq is now the central front" - the proving ground for the administration's current approach to dealing with terrorism.

George Bush came to office calling for a "humble" America eschewing the role of global cop. But he was transformed into a leader with a clear international purpose by the deadly and shocking attacks. Similarly, a nation that had entertained the chimera of the "end of history" after its coldwar victory awoke to its unavoidable leadership role as the world's only superpower.

Of course, America has long been about "making the world safe for democracy" - including intervening militarily when it deemed it necessary.

The effort began in the Americas in 1823 with the Monroe Doctrine (European interference in former colonies in the hemisphere would be considered "unfriendly" acts against the US). It continued, nearly a century later, as the US took on the Spanish Empire - sending 120,000 troops to the Philippines to extend its influence into Asia - and on into World War II.

As Harvard University historian Michael Ignatieff notes, hardly a year has passed since American independence that the US has not had its troops on foreign soil.

After World War II, however, the challenges to American security were framed in terms of the ideologies that would challenge democratic prosperity - thus the cold war. President Franklin Roosevelt saw the threat of world war that might come from the fight against communism in such global terms that he promoted the creation of an international body, the UN Security Council.

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