1 2 Krauthammer, Charles (ngày 13 tháng 9 năm 2008). “Charlie Gibson's Gaffe”. The Washington Post. Truy cập ngày 31 tháng 3 năm 2012. According to Charles Krauthammer, who was the first to use it in June 2001, the phrase has had four distinct meanings, each one succeeding another over the eight years of the George W. Bush presidency: firstly, unilateralism, i.e. unilaterally withdrawing from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and rejecting the Kyoto Protocol; secondly, after ngày 9 tháng 11 năm 2001, the "with us or against us" policy on terror; thirdly, a doctrine of pre-emptive war, e.g. Iraq; and fourthly, the idea that the fundamental mission of American foreign policy is to spread democracy throughout the world.
