This is NSN's 11-part examination of George W. Bush's national security and foreign policy legacy.

The sorry national security legacy of the Bush administration can be measured in in the President’s failure to meet his own rhetorical objectives:  “victory” in Iraq, an Afghanistan cleansed of terrorists, a Middle East transformed and democratic, a US military strengthened, a global economy rejuvenated and a world in which democracy and freedom are “on the march.” It can also be charted in the renewal of terrorism, religious extremism and violence emanating from Central and South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia about which the administration can or will do little; the disintegration of our closest alliances and rise of states openly hostile to us in our own hemisphere.  Perhaps most starkly it is marked in domestic and world public opinion, where President Bush plummeted from the highest – to lowest-ranked President in the history of public opinion research, and took global regard for the US to uncharted lows.  This dramatic decline, the largest in history, can be attributed first and foremost to the President’s failed national security policies.  While economic failure will undoubtedly mar the Bush’s legacy, it is his foreign policy which will define George W. Bush as one of the worst presidents in American history.