Comparison of Foreign and Domestic Policies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush

This essay discusses the implementation of the foreign and domestic policies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, comparing their effects on the common people and the place of the United States in the world.

Running head: HISTORY ESSAY
History Essay
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1HISTORY ESSAY
Introduction
The purpose of the following essay is to discuss about the implementation of the foreign
policies of the two of the most famous Presidents of United States. The domestic an foreign
policies of the country are very important because these policies represent the natural image of
that country in front of the entire world. The two presidents that have been chosen in this essay
to be compared and contrasted are George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. George W. Bush belonged
to the Republican party and Bill Clinton represented the Democrats.
However, the timeline of them becoming the President falls in almost the same decade.
Bill Clinton became the President of the United States in the year 1993 and he remained in the
same position until 2001. In 2001, George W. Bush became the President. These two presidents
have been chosen for the benefit of comparing and contrasting. It is only because the domestic
and global conditions had not changed that much. Therefore, the people of the country would go
through almost the same conditions in their lives (Webber and Smith: 35) In this essay, several
domestic and foreign policies would be discussed and comparing their effects on the common
people and place of United States in the world (Brady,: 78).
Rise of the United States
After the end of the cold war and the fall of the Soviet Union, United States claimed to be
th most powerful position in the global politics. The first two Presidents after the end of the cold
war would be discussed in this paper. The administration led by Bill Clinton ruled from 1993 to
2001 before George W. Bush became the President. However, there are some similarities and
differences of the administration led by these two men. Some of the strategies that had been

2HISTORY ESSAY
implemented by these two people are unilateralism, multilateralism, internationalism and
isolationism.
Some of these experiments have been fruitful but some of them have not yielded good
results. It can be said that the administration of US led by Bill Clinton always maintained a better
relationship with all other countries in the world. They were also very peaceful with European
nations as well (Webber and Smith: 35) On the other hand, administration ked by George W.
Bush was not so much peaceful. Rather they were very much aggressive. The policies of Bill
Clinton will be discussed in the first section by highlight both the domestic and foreign policies
of the person. After that, the same thing will be addressed on George W. Bush as well. One of
the biggest decisions of George W. Bush was the invasion and war against Iraq in terms of his
foreign policies.
Domestic and foreign policies of Bill Clinton
Domestic
Both the domestic and foreign policies of Bill Clinton have been very much helpful for
the overall betterment of the country. United States had gained a good image in front of the
whole world (Riley). After becoming the President, Clinton had to tackle the resistance from
Congress so he could be able to adopt the economic package including increase of tax and
spending cuts. The tax increase was meant for mainly the upper class people o the society and
the spending cuts were for the poor people of the society. This new economic policy proved to be
helpful since the economic deficits of $290 billion of 1992 had lowered to $203 billion in the
year 1994. This evidently proves that the domestic economic policies of the country were
proceeding towards betterment (Moens: 48).

3HISTORY ESSAY
The economic growth was on its way and the inflation rates were decreasing. This is why
Bill Clinton has been regarded as one of the most important of Presidents in the modern times. In
the case of passage for North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Clinton went on to
endorse the Republican programs (Riley). He was able to gain the support of Republicans in this
matter. Clinton had also been successful in increasing the minimum wage $5-15 per hour. Apart
from that, he prevented the attempt of Republicans from banning of education provision for the
children of the illegal immigrants into United States (Webber and Smith: 35)
Foreign
Next follows the foreign policies of Bill Clinton administration to provide a favorable
position to the United States. Through the foreign policies of Clinton administration, USA
retained their position of the global policemen (Riley). Clinton knew he had to get engaged with
the whole world in place of taking the isolationist approach. This would give USA the
opportunity to exchange their ideas with the other countries of the world. He worked very hard
so he could lead by front to establish a peaceful Europe without any divisions. This gave Clinton
the opportunity to expand NATO from its age old cold war model so it could work hard to meet
the demands and claims of the European countries like Czch Republic, Hungary and Poland
(Webber and Smith: 35).
The China policy of Bill Clinton had also been effective through some common means
like deterrence methods and engagement through mutual cooperation. In the beginning he
removed the most favored nation status from China so China could improve their human rights
record (Riley). Further, he assumed this connotation would not be a clever decision as China was
growing with utmost power. He took all the foreign crises challenges very effectively indeed.

4HISTORY ESSAY
The Kosovo War was one of his decisions as he had to use his troops for an air attack on Kosovo
in 1999.
Domestic and foreign policies of George W. Bush
Domestic
The domestic and foreign affairs of George W. Bush had also been effective in some
cases but he was a kind of aggressive leader. Two of the biggest incidents that devastated USA in
the Presidential regime of George W. Bush were terror attacks in September, 2001 and chaos
caused by natural disaster caused by hurricane Katrina in the year 2005 (Gregg II). He was in
very deep thought about the structure of the White House much before he was elected as the
President of the country (Gregg II). He selected Dick Cheney as his vice president who was a
veteran in the system. Apart from that, he was quite aware that he had to surround himself with a
number of senior staffs. Some appointments made by President Bush had been quite
controversial from the political perspectives (Harris: 67).
Therefore, it was quite sure that he was not able to meet all his aims by the policies he
had implemented. The use of the term ‘compassionate conservatism’ was one o the main
keywords for George W. Bush (Brands: 48). Through the first executive order, Bush had
established the Office of the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. It was from his belief that
these charity groups would be able to serve the distressed people in the country much better than
the Federal Government in Washington. Another issue that arose during his regime was the issue
of funding for stem cell research (Gregg II). The Dickey Amendment banned the practice of
using the Federal Government money for research in which human embryos are destroyed. This
things had caused huge problems in this scenario.

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Foreign
The foreign policies of George W. Bush should be analyzed as well to measure his
effectiveness and success as the President of the country. Therefore, it is very much evident that
the foreign policies of George W. Bush had been quite problematic in certain circumstances. He
was the second President who came to power in post Cold war era. The strategies taken up by the
Bush administration had been pre-emptive and preventative. Bush had believed in unilateralism.
After the attacks of 9/11, Bush believed in the pre-emption of attacks rather than
investigating into the causes of the matter. Bush believed in the fact that he was not answerable
to anyone just simply because he was the President of United States. Other issues in which his
name has been involved are Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, international conventions on the
use of land mines, biological weapons, and small arms trafficking and rejecting the Kyoto
Protocol. Unlike Clinton, he was not at all in favor of retaining a peaceful relation with the other
nations of the world (Gregg II).
Compare and contrast between Clinton and Bush
In this section a proper comparison will be done between Bill Clinton and George W.
Bush. There have been some similarities between the processes of running the administration but
many differences have been noticed by the experts as well. Bush wanted to confront the world
with the strategies of unilateralism and isolationism (Rubinstein: 99). The similarity that both
these administrations have is regarding the Wilsonian dynamic of democracy. In the case of wars
conducted by these teo administrations, both Clinton and Bush did not have the authorizations
from the United Nations Security Council. The war in Kosovo taken up bu Clinton

6HISTORY ESSAY
administration stabilized the condition in entire Europe. This made USA o stay in a peaceful
relationship with Europe (Rubinstein: 99).
On the contrary, Bush had ignored the messages of NATO that was not favorable for
peaceful conditions with other countries and United Nations itself. Clinton had believed in
multilateralism but Bush believed in the American hegemony and unilateralism (Rubinstein: 99).
This did not yield fruitful outcomes for Bush regime (Brands: 48). Apparently, it is very much
clear that the administration of Bill Clinton had been very much evident in maintaining good
relations with almost all the worlds in the world. Bush wanted to seek the freedom by giving up
stability.
On the other hand, Clinton wanted the stability in different countries. Therefore, it can be
said that the people of the United States enjoyed the regime of Bill Clinton much more than
George W. Bush (Brands: 48). Bush also did not care much about the opinions of the common
people. So, he was not liked by the common people of the country whatsoever. Apparently, Bill
Clinton was more successful as a President through his domestic and foreign policies.
Conclusion
In the concluding section, it can be said that the implementation of the foreign and
domestic policies are really very helpful for the overall success of a person as the President of
United States. The foreign and domestic policies of the Presidents are very important to measure
the overall success. In this case, Bill Clinton’s policies have been very much effective in many
senses since he has always connected himself with the common people of the country. He has
also gone on to establish a relationship of peace with the other countries. Bush has forced his

7HISTORY ESSAY
policies without caring for the opinions of the common people. So, the policies o Bill Clinton has
placed him as more successful.

8HISTORY ESSAY
References and Bibliography
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Bush. Routledge, 2018.
Brands, Hal. Making the unipolar moment: US Foreign policy and the rise of the post-Cold War
order. Cornell University Press, 2016.
Cox, Michael, and Doug Stokes, eds. US foreign policy. Oxford University Press, 2018.
Dietrich, John W. The George W. Bush Foreign Policy Reader: Presidential Speeches with
Commentary: Presidential Speeches with Commentary. Routledge, 2015.
Gregg II, Gary L. "George W. Bush: Domestic Affairs | Miller Center". Miller Center, 2019,
https://millercenter.org/president/gwbush/domestic-affairs.
Harris, Paul G. International equity and global environmental politics: power and principles in
US foreign policy. Routledge, 2017.
Kroenig, Matthew. "Facing reality: Getting NATO ready for a new Cold War." Survival 57.1
(2015): 49-70.\
Lynch, Timothy J. "Obama, liberalism, and US foreign policy." Obama and the World.
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Moens, Alexander. The foreign policy of George W. Bush: Values, strategy, and loyalty.
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Pauly, Robert J. Strategic Preemption: US Foreign Policy and the Second Iraq War. Routledge,
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Routledge, 2018.
Riley, Russell L. "Bill Clinton: Domestic Affairs | Miller Center". Miller Center, 2019,
https://millercenter.org/president/clinton/domestic-affairs. Accessed 15 May 2019.
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