Editing Clinton Doctrine

{{Short description|Foreign policy of the administration of U.S. president Bill Clinton (1993–2001)}}
{{Bill Clinton series|expanded=Policies}}
{{about|the doctrine of Bill Clinton|the doctrine of his wife|Hillary Doctrine}}
The '''Clinton Doctrine''' is not an [[United States presidential doctrines|official government statement]] but an interpretation made by experts of the main priorities in the [[foreign policy of the Bill Clinton administration]] in the United States from 1993 to 2001.

==Clinton statements==
Various speeches have been proposed as texts for a doctrine. Thus, in a February 26, 1999, speech, President [[Bill Clinton]] said the following:<ref>{{cite web|author=Michael T. Klare |url=http://www.thenation.com/doc/19990419/klare |archive-url=https://archive.today/20060318133204/http://www.thenation.com/doc/19990419/klare |url-status=dead |archive-date=2006-03-18 |title=The Clinton Doctrine |date=1999-04-19 |access-date=2008-09-16 |publisher=The Nation }}</ref>

:''It's easy ... to say that we really have no interests in who lives in this or that valley in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnia]], or who owns a strip of brushland in the [[Horn of Africa]], or some piece of parched earth by the [[Jordan River]]. But the true measure of our interests lies not in how small or distant these places are, or in whether we have trouble pronouncing their names. The question we must ask is, what are the consequences to our security of letting conflicts fester and spread. We cannot, indeed, we should not, do everything or be everywhere. But where our values and our interests are at stake, and where we can make a difference, we must be prepared to do so.''

Clinton later made statements that augmented his approach to [[Interventionism (politics)|interventionism]]:

:''"[[Genocide]] is in and of itself a national interest where we should act"'' and ''"we can say to the people of the world, whether you live in Africa, or Central Europe, or any other place, if somebody comes after innocent civilians and tries to kill them en masse because of their race, their ethnic background or their religion, and it's within our power to stop it, we will stop it."''

The interventionist position was used to justify U.S. involvement in the [[Yugoslav Wars]]. Clinton was criticized for not intervening to stop the [[Rwandan genocide]] of 1994. Other observers viewed [[Operation Gothic Serpent]] in [[Somalia]] as a mistake.

The Clinton administration also promoted [[globalization]] by pushing for trade agreements. The administration negotiated a total of around 300 trade agreements, such as [[North American Free Trade Agreement|NAFTA]].<ref>Clinton on Foreign Policy at University of Nebraska Archived 2015-04-28 at the Wayback Machine</ref> [[Anthony Lake]] who served as [[National Security Advisor (United States)|National Security Advisor]] to Clinton between 1993 and 1997, showed the Clinton administration's commitment to accelerating the process of globalization in a speech given in 1993. The speech talked about enlarging the community of democracies around the world alongside expanding free markets.<ref>Haaas, Richard. N., 'Fatal Distraction: Bill Clinton's Foreign Policy', ''Foreign Policy 108''(1997), p. 113.</ref>

==National Security Strategy==
In Clinton's final [[National Security Strategy (United States)|National Security Strategy]], he differentiated between national interests and humanitarian interests.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|author=Clinton, William J.|url=http://nssarchive.us/?page_id=71|title= A National Security Strategy For A New Century|date=December 2000|publisher=The White House}}</ref> He described national interests as those that:

:''...do not affect our national survival, but ... do affect our national well-being and the character of the world in which we live. Important national interests include, for example, regions in which we have a sizable economic stake or commitments to allies, protecting the global environment from severe harm, and crises with a potential to generate substantial and highly destabilizing refugee flows.''

Clinton's National Security Strategy provided Bosnia and [[Kosovo]] as examples of such interests and stakes. In contrast, it described humanitarian interests as those that force the nation to act:<ref name=":0" />
:''because our values demand it. Examples include responding to natural and manmade disasters; promoting human rights and seeking to halt gross violations of those rights; supporting democratization, adherence to the rule of law and [[Civil control of the military|civilian control of the military]]; assisting humanitarian demining; and promoting sustainable development and environmental protection.''

The NSS also declared the right of the United States to intervene militarily to secure its "vital interests," which included, "ensuring uninhibited access to key markets, energy supplies, and strategic resources."<ref>[https://fas.org/man/docs/qdr/sec3.html "DEFENSE STRATEGY"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150706001606/http://fas.org/man/docs/qdr/sec3.html |date=2015-07-06 }} U.S. Department of Defense, 1997</ref>

==Historiography==
Historians and political scientists evaluated Clinton's immediate predecessors in terms of how well they handled the [[Cold War]]. A dilemma has arisen regarding what criteria to use regarding presidential administrations after the end of the Cold War.<ref>John Davis, "The dilemma: evaluating the first post-Cold War president." ''White House Studies'' 3.2 (2003): 183-200.</ref> Historians have debated, with inconclusive results, on the question of whether there was a consistent overall theme or schema to Clintonian foreign policy, or what scholars would call a "Clinton doctrine".<ref>John Dumbrell, "Was there a Clinton doctrine? President Clinton's foreign policy reconsidered" ''Diplomacy and Statecraft'' 13.2 (2002): 43–56.</ref> ''[[The Economist]]'' reported that [[Henry Kissinger]] echoed a frequent complaint when he characterized the Clinton foreign policy as less a grand design than “a series of seemingly unrelated decisions in response to specific crises.”<ref>See "The world beyond: America needs a design for foreign policy" [https://www.economist.com/unknown/2000/09/28/the-world-beyond ''The Economist'' Sept 30, 2000  ]</ref> John Dumbrell however notes that [[Douglas Brinkley]] and others have identified a Clinton doctrine in terms of systematic efforts to expand democracy in the world.<ref>Douglas Brinkley, "Democratic enlargement: the Clinton doctrine." ''Foreign Policy'' 106 (1997): 111-127 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1149177 online]</ref><ref>Kissinger himself also pointed this out. Henry Kissinger, ''Diplomacy'' (1994), p. 805.</ref> Other experts have pointed to the Clintonian emphasis on humanitarianism, especially when military intervention was called for.<ref>Dumbrell, pp 43-44.</ref> Democracy and humanitarianism represent the idealistic tradition in American foreign policy. Critics of Clintonianism have drawn upon the warnings of [[George F. Kennan]], an exponent of the [[Realism (international relations)|realist]] tradition. Kennan argued that idealism made poor policy, and according to Richard Russell, believed idealism that ignored the realities of power and the national interest would be self-defeating and erode American power.<ref>Richard Russell, "American diplomatic realism: A tradition practised and preached by George F. Kennan." ''Diplomacy and Statecraft'' 11.3 (2000): 159–182 at p. 170</ref>

Dumbrell also sees several other possible Clinton doctrines, including perhaps a systematic reluctance to become involved in foreign complications far from the American shore.<ref>Dumbrell, p 44.</ref> Dumbrell's favorite candidate is the explicit Clinton administration policy of warning "rogue" states on their misbehavior, using U.S. military intervention as a threat. He traces the origins of this policy to presidents [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[Ronald Reagan]], arguing that the Clinton administration made it more systematic so it deserves the term "Clinton Doctrine". However, Dumbrell concludes, it did not prove successful in practice.<ref>Dumbrell, pp 53-55.</ref>

==See also==
* [[Bush Doctrine]]
* [[Carter Doctrine]]
* [[Obama Doctrine]]
* [[Reagan Doctrine]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{cite book|author=Clinton, William J.
|url=http://nssarchive.us/?page_id=73
|title= A National Security Strategy For A Global Age
|date=December 2000|publisher=The White House}}
* {{cite book|author=Clinton, William J.
|url=http://nssarchive.us/?page_id=71
|title= A National Security Strategy For A New Century
|date=December 1999|publisher=The White House}}
* {{cite book|author=Clinton, William J.
|url=http://nssarchive.us/?page_id=66
|title= A National Security Strategy For A New Century
|date=October 1998|publisher=The White House}}
* {{cite book|author=Clinton, William J.
|url=http://nssarchive.us/?page_id=68
|title= A National Security Strategy For A New Century
|date=May 1997|publisher=The White House}}
* {{cite book|author=Clinton, William J.
|url=http://nssarchive.us/?page_id=91
|title= A National Security Strategy of Engagement and Enlargement
|date=February 1996|publisher=The White House}}

==Further reading==
* Bouchet, Nicolas. ''Democracy promotion as US foreign policy: Bill Clinton and democratic enlargement'' (Routledge, 2015).
*  Brinkley, Douglas. "Democratic enlargement: the Clinton doctrine." ''Foreign Policy'' 106 (1997): 111–127. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1149177 online]
* Dumbrell, John. "Was there a Clinton doctrine? President Clinton's foreign policy reconsidered." ''Diplomacy and Statecraft'' 13.2 (2002): 43–56. [https://www.olli-dc.org/uploads/PDFs/2020_Fall/703_Nathan/17-WasThereaClintonDoctrinePresidentClintonsForeignPolicyReconsidered.pdf online]
* Meiertöns, Heiko. ''The Doctrines of US Security Policy - An Evaluation under International Law'', Cambridge University Press (2010), {{ISBN|978-0-521-76648-7}}.
* Søndergaard, Rasmus Sinding. "Bill Clinton's ‘democratic enlargement’and the securitisation of democracy promotion." ''Diplomacy & Statecraft'' 26.3 (2015): 534–551. [https://www.olli-dc.org/uploads/PDFs/2020_Fall/703_Nathan/02-BillClintonsDemocraticEnlargementandtheSecuritisationofDemocracyPromotion.pdf online]

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[[Category:History of the foreign relations of the United States]]
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