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Debate over President Clinton's Worldview
The election of Bill Clinton as president in November 1992 brought to Washington, DC, a "self-admitted [domestic] 'policy wonk' " who "was clearly less comfortable with foreign and defense matters than his predecessor."1 Indeed, throughout the 1992 presidential campaign, candidate Clinton made it clear that "if a battle was to be fought, resources of intervention deployed, it would be in a war against domestic problems, not foreign enemies."2 In other words, the public had a good idea that if Clinton were elected, he would "focus like a laser beam" on the domestic economy in order to be the domestic policy president that George Bush had not been. However, because he spent the majority of his time discussing domestic problems, his views on foreign policy and America's place in the post-cold war world largely remained a mystery.3
Some argue that the ad hoc, inconsistent nature of American foreign policy during 1993 and 1994 further contributed to the growing feeling that President Clinton had still not developed a coherent worldview. During his first term, for example, he earned the nickname "William the Waffler" for his administration's supposed inconsistency in linking rhetoric with policy on human rights violations in China, refugee problems in Cuba and Haiti, and in haphazardly getting the United States involved in the long-running, tragic conflict in Bosnia.4 Thus, trying to discern Clinton's image of the world has been the cause of much debate and academic focus, particularly since, as the first "baby boomer" president, Clinton has very little "in common with the life experiences and shared worldview of the generation of Cold War leaders" who preceded him.5
Much analysis of Clinton's foreign policy at midterm characterizes the president's worldview and his administration's policy as inconsistent/incoherent, complex/complicated, or nonexistent. Fred Greenstein describes Clinton's approach to foreign policy as "highly personalistic and sometimes indecisive" and his worldview as "inconsistent."6 Wolfowitz generally concurs with Greenstein, calling it "confused and inconsistent."7 Friedman also agrees, calling the president's "foreign policy blueprint nonexistent" and incoherent.8 Brent Scowcroft characterizes the Clinton image of the world as a "peripatetic foreign policy outlook at prey to the whims of the latest balance of forces."9
Gelb and others disagree, arguing instead that Clinton does have a coherent worldview: these...