Big-think central: at the Council on Foreign Relations, the stately moderation of the past is giving way to a growing debate about Bush and democracy.

IN ADOPTING NEOCONSERVATISM AS ITS GRAND STRATEGY, the Bush administration took a breathtaking gamble. It broke from the conventional foreign-policy wisdom of both parties, cleaving to an aggressive but idealistic new vision of America's role in the world. The strategy would either succeed spectacularly, touching off the promised domino effect of freedom in the Middle East, or fail spectacularly, forcing a chastened, bloodied withdrawal from Iraq and a significantly weakened American hand against other foes.

Have the neoconservatives, with their uncompromising talk and use of ...

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