Alex Callinicos is Professorof Politics at the University of York.

American power has become the dominant issue in world politics. The Anglo-American conquest of Iraq has reinforced growing fears that the United States under George W. Bush is determined to use the military might of the Pentagon to impose its will.

In this timely book, Alex Callinicos explores the real meaning of the Bush Doctrine. He deconstructs the rhetorical justifications of the 'war on terrorism' and analyses the strategy of the Republican neoconservatives who now dominate American foreign policy. Their main aim, he suggests, is less to combat terrorism than to use US military supremacy to intimidate and discipline potential competitors. This is the latest episode, Callinicos argues, in the long history of capitalist imperialism. The neoconservative 'Project for the New American Century' seeks to perpetuate the global domination of US-style neoliberal capitalism: it can only be effectively resisted once this is understood.