US Hegemony, American Exceptionalism and Unipolarity.

There are different explanations of the strategic phenomenon known loosely as the Bush Doctrine. Here I look at two competing and possibly complementary views: that on the one hand US foreign policy in its current form is a function of a unipolar system within which the United States is the only serious international actor; or on the other that it embodies something distinctly American ? that is something exceptional ? which tells us as much, if not more, about the United States as a very specific kind of polity than it does about the distribution of power globally. In this paper, I will explore these two lines of inquiry and draw some conclusions about the future direction of US foreign policy and whether or not the United States will continue along its current unilateral path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]