The success of the neoconservative movement in appropriating the label " Conservative " has brought into debate the very definition of conservatism in Canada today.

" His numerous editorials in support of the Iraq War caused some to label him a neoconservative, although Hitchens insisted he was not " a conservative of any kind ", and his friend Ian McEwan described him as representing the anti-totalitarian left.

Glazer has described himself as " indifferent " to the neoconservative label with which he is arguably most associated, and also remarked that it was an appellation not of his choosing.

By the early 1980s there was no clear neoconservative in the Tory leadership cadre, but Brian Mulroney, who became leader in 1983, eventually came to adopt many policies from the Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan governments.

The development of the doctrine was influenced by neoconservative ideology, and it was considered to be a step from the political realism of the Reagan Doctrine.

Jim George of Australian National University used the term to describe part of what he argued was the Straussian and neoconservative foreign policy of the G. W.

Perle, with fellow neoconservative Paul Wolfowitz, played a supporting role in the ballistic missile defense project in the 1980s known as “ Star Wars ” Perle was influential in creating several organizations and think-tanks in order to pressure public opinion and sway policy makers on ballistic missile defense.

As journalist and writer of neoconservative ideology Jacob Heilbrunn states: “ neo-conservatism was turned into an actual movement by Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz.

In 2004, when Bush II was reelected many of Perle ’ s close neoconservative associates were promoted to “ unprecedented ” positions within the U. S government.

" Smith refutes the link between Strauss and neoconservative thought ( a link that some commentators have controversially made ), arguing that Strauss was never personally active in politics, never endorsed imperialism, and questioned the utility of political philosophy for the practice of politics.

Finally, responding to charges that Strauss's teachings fostered the neoconservative foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration, such as " unrealistic hopes for the spread of liberal democracy through military conquest ," Professor Nathan Tarcov, Director of the Leo Strauss Center at the University of Chicago, in an article published in The American Interest asserts that Strauss as a political philosopher was essentially non-political.

" Likewise Strauss's daughter, Jenny Strauss Clay, in a New York Times article defended her father against the charge that he was the " mastermind behind the neoconservative ideologues who control United States foreign policy.

The term " neoconservative " ( sometimes shortened to " neocon ") was initially used in the 1930s, to describe American liberals who criticized communists for following a path closer to Soviet communism.

The term " neoconservative " was popularized in the United States in 1973 by Socialist leader Michael Harrington, who used the term to define Daniel Bell, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Irving Kristol, whose ideologies differed from Harrington's.

By 1982 Podhoretz was calling himself a neoconservative, in a New York Times Magazine article titled " The Neoconservative Anguish over Reagan's Foreign Policy ".

The term neoconservative, which originally was used by a socialist to criticize the politics of Social Democrats, USA, has since 1980 been used as a criticism against proponents of American modern liberalism who had " moved to the right ".< ref >

Known for books like Beyond the Melting Pot which deal with race and ethnicity, Glazer was critical of some of the Great Society programs of the mid-1960s and is often considered neoconservative in his thinking on domestic policy, though he remained a Democrat.

A swastika was found spray painted on a sign outside of his congressional office in his congressional district, reportedly painted by neoconservative activists.

Chomsky argues that the Republican neoconservative administration of President George W. Bush, elected to the presidency in 2001, differed from earlier administrations in one key respect: it was open about adhering to the Imperial Grand Strategy, outright declaring that it would be willing to use force to ensure U. S. global hegemony despite international condemnation.

Several days following Saddam's invasion and occupation of Kuwait, he was among the first to articulate the neoconservative principle that the Iraqi occupation was such a globally destabilizing event that it required all nations of the world ( including the former Soviet Union ) to choose sides in the conflict, standing with the U. S. in its efforts to dislodge Iraqi forces from Kuwait or to be seen, in the eyes of U. S. foreign policy, as siding with America's enemies.

In 1988, Đilas was interviewed by the neoconservative magazine Encounter on the subject of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's economic and political reforms in the Soviet Union.

Adding to the criticism was Glenn Greenwald of Salon. com who, describing Cohen as " extremist a neoconservative and warmonger as it gets ", suggested an internal significance of the appointment for the Bush administration:

" Prominent left-wing intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy agreed the war was " a bad idea ", but was sympathetic to the neoconservative point of view and disagreed with what he perceived to be the film's " core " argument, that " we have no reason to be interfering " in the Middle East.

Muravchik called former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ( a traditional conservative ) a neoconservative hero and champion of military strategy, but claimed that the strength of the neoconservatives is their ideology as foundation for policies, and this strength is also recognized by political scientists.

The Bush Doctrine, in line with long-standing neoconservative ideas, held that the United States is entangled in a global war of ideas between the western values of freedom on the one hand, and extremism seeking to destroy them on the other ; a war of ideology where the United States must take responsibility for security and show leadership in the world by actively seeking out the enemies and also change those countries who are supporting enemies.

The emerging neoconservatives of the 1970s were significantly reduced in numbers in the party by the late 1980s, and many of the disaffected drifted towards neo-liberalism and single-issue parties with a neoconservative bent, such as the Reform Party of Canada.

The Islamic Supreme Council of America ( ISCA ) is a sufi based religious organization and think tank allegedly closely associated with the neoconservative lobby in the United States founded by the Naqshbandi Shaykh Hisham Kabbani.

Even today, the neoconservative movement is best described as an extended family based largely on the informal social networks patiently forged by these two patriarchs .”

A sociologist who examined the memberships of such neoconservative organizations ultimately concluded that “ the activities of fourteen organizations were coordinated by individuals who comprised a web of interlocking memberships .”

Nonetheless, Perle helped manage and hire neoconservative affiliated staff for both these organizations that created their own policies and intelligence reports by dodging existing government entities.

In fact, the only common denominator that is held by all the groups identifying as traditionalist is love of the traditional liturgy and, usually, suspicion of modern " neoconservative " Catholicism, which is viewed as shallow, ahistorical, and intellectually dishonest.

One of Kristol's most celebrated quips defines a neoconservative as " a liberal who has been mugged by reality ".

O ' Neill's private feuds with Bush's tax cut policies and his push to further investigate alleged al-Qaeda funding from some American-allied countries, as well as his objection to the invasion of Iraq in the name of the war on terror — that he considered as nothing but a simple excuse for a war decided long before by neoconservative elements of the first Bush Administration — led to him being fired in 2002 and replaced with John W. Snow.

Orchard argued that his efforts were not based on self-promotion but rather on preserving Canada's founding party and preventing a takeover of the moderate values and membership of the PCs by the neoconservative values of the Alliance membership.

" According to PRA, MEMRI's translated articles and its commentary are routinely cited in national media outlets in the United States, including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, while analyses by MEMRI staff and officers are frequently published by right-wing and neoconservative media outlets such as National Review, Fox News, Commentary, and the Weekly Standard.

Ledeen's phrase, " faster, please " has become a signature meme in Ledeen's writings ( it is currently the title of his blog on the Pajamas Media website ) and is often referenced by neoconservative writers advocating a more forceful and broader war on terror.

The Cohen appointment, is clearly another instance where neoconservatives place a watchdog in potential trouble spots in the government to ensure that diplomats do not stray by trying to facilitate rapproachments between the U. S. and the countries on the neoconservative War hit list.

In chapter 4, Ferguson analyzes the Moynihan Report as a coalition of sociological canons, black nationalism, the civil rights movement, neoconservative resentment, and neo-racist tendencies to initiate a trend that sought to reaffirm heteropatriarchal normativity by suggesting that the problems that plagued nonwhites of the US are sourced primarily in their departures from hetero-and patriarchal-norms.

He credits Buckley with allowing him to publish when he had been blacklisted by liberal journals and neoconservative publications after a dispute with Irving Kristol.

Saunders considered himself an Objectivist in his twenties but is now repulsed by the philosophy, comparing it to neoconservative thinking.

According to Irving Kristol, self-described founder of American Neoconservatism, Thucydides wrote " the favorite neoconservative text on foreign affairs "; and Thucydides is a required text at the Naval War College, an American institution located in Rhode Island.

Neoconservatism was first described by a group of disaffected liberals, and thus Irving Kristol, usually credited as its intellectual progenitor, defined a neoconservative as " a liberal who was mugged by reality.