Shift of Focus in US Foreign Policy after September 11, 2001‎

This article studies the reasons and motives for the shift of focus in the US foreign policy from Europe to the Middle East. The author argues that the US foreign policy during the Cold War was Europe-oriented and Europe was in the core of US grand foreign policy. After the collapse of the bipolar system, the US saw itself as the sole superpower. While having no certain enemy, the US foreign policy went out from defensive phase and faced with the crisis of raison-d’être. The incidents of 9/11 challenged the national security of the United States and released its foreign policy from this identity crisis. Considering that the Middle East is the core of asymmetric threats to its hegemony, the United States concentrated on this region and emphasized its will to eliminate so-called "terrorism" through its unilateral policy – "War on Terror". The paper concludes that, in fact the United States aims to stabilize its hegemony in the Middle East and to spread it all over the world.