Rogue States: The Rule of Force in World Affairs

Front Cover
South End Press, 2000 - History - 254 pages
Contents

Rogues' Gallery: Who Qualifies?
Rogue States
Crisis in the Balkans
East Timor Retrospective
"Plan Colombia"
Cuba and the US Government: David vs. Goliath
Putting on the Pressure: Latin America
Jubilee 2000
"Recovering Rights": A Crooked Path
The United States and the "Challenge of Universality"
The Legacy of War
Millennium Greetings
Power in the Domestic Arena
Socioeconomic Sovereignty
Notes
Index

An Excerpt from "Rogue States" by Noam Chomsky

The concept of "rogue state" plays a pre-eminent role today in policy planning and analysis.

The current Iraq crisis is only the latest example. Washington and London declared Iraq a "rogue state," a threat to its neighbors and to the entire world, an "outlaw nation" led by a reincarnation of Hitler who must be contained by the guardians of world order, the United States and its British "junior partner," to adopt the term ruefully employed by the British foreign office half a century ago. The concept merits a close look.

[...]

A secret 1995 study of the Strategic Command, which is responsible for the strategic nuclear arsenal, outlines the basic thinking. Released through the Freedom of Information Act, the study, "Essentials of Post-Cold War Deterrence," "shows how the United States shifted its deterrent strategy from the defunct Soviet Union to so-called rogue states such as Iraq, Libya, Cuba and North Korea," AP reports. The study advocates that the US exploit its nuclear arsenal to portray itself as "irrational and vindictive if its vital interests are attacked." That "should be a part of the national persona we project to all adversaries," in particular the "rogue states." "It hurts to portray ourselves as too fully rational and cool-headed," let alone committed to such silliness as international law and treaty obligations. "The fact that some elements" of the US government "may appear to be potentially 'out of control' can be beneficial to creating and reinforcing fears and doubts within the minds of an adversary's decision makers." The report resurrects Nixon's "madman theory": our enemies should recognize that we are crazed and unpredictable, with extraordin

 

Contents

Rogues Gallery Who Qualifies?
Rogue States
8
Crisis in the Balkans
30
East Timor Retrospective
47
Plan Colombia
58
Cuba and the US Government David vs Goliath
78
Putting on the Pressure Latin America
89
Jubilee 2000
97
The United States and the Challenge of Relativity
120
The Legacy of War
152
Millennium Greetings
170
Power in the Domestic Arena
184
Socioeconomic Sovereignty
195
Notes
211
Index
238
About South End Press
249

Recovering Rights A Crooked Path
104

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About the author (2000)

Noam Chomsky was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 7, 1928. Son of a Russian emigrant who was a Hebrew scholar, Chomsky was exposed at a young age to the study of language and principles of grammar. During the 1940s, he began developing socialist political leanings through his encounters with the New York Jewish intellectual community. Chomsky received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied linguistics, mathematics, and philosophy. He conducted much of his research at Harvard University. In 1955, he began teaching at MIT, eventually holding the Ferrari P. Ward Chair of Modern Language and Linguistics. Today Chomsky is highly regarded as both one of America's most prominent linguists and most notorious social critics and political activists. His academic reputation began with the publication of Syntactic Structures in 1957. Within a decade, he became known as an outspoken intellectual opponent of the Vietnam War. Chomsky has written many books on the links between language, human creativity, and intelligence, including Language and Mind (1967) and Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use (1985). He also has written dozens of political analyses, including Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988), Chronicles of Dissent (1992), and The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many (1993).

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