EN
Terrorist attacks on 11 September, 2001 started a number of changes in the US security policy. The USA declared a war against terrorism, whose first practical manifestation was military intervention in Afghanistan. President George W. Bush presented a uniform conception of the foreign and security policy in September 2002 in the National Security Strategy. This document contained a clause on the possibility of undertaking preventive and independent action by the USA in case of threat to national security. The war in Iraq indicated the USA's transition to pursue a policy of unilateralism. A lack of UN Security Council's mandate, mass international protests against the Iraq war, a growing number of casualties - both military and civilian, disclosed information about US soldiers inflicting torture on prisoners in Abu Ghraib, contributed to the fact that it was not easy for G. W. Bush, who had been running for reelection in presidential election of 2004, to carry out an election campaign. The purpose of this article is to show a connection between 'the war against terrorism ' declared in 2001 and Bush's reelection to US president.