Abstract
When it came to rogue states in the post–Cold War era, US policy mandarins concentrated mainly on North Korea, Iraq, and Iran. The array of threats emanating from Pyongyang, Baghdad, and Tehran far outweighed those coming from the other countries registered on the US Department of State’s listing of state sponsors of terrorism. Libya, Cuba, South Yemen, Syria, and the Sudan—the other listed nations—did periodically raise anxieties in Washington. Their dictatorial rule, inflammatory declarations, human rights abuses, terrorist sponsorship, or initiatives to secure WMD constituted the earmarks of rogue-state behavior. Yet for a variety of reasons, none rose to the upper or, better put, the lower tier of adversarial nations endangering the world community and particularly the United States and its allies as the triad of pariahs—Iraq, Iran, and North Korea—did. These so-called lesser rogue nations, nevertheless, deserve some attention, as do troublesome states, which could evolve into full-fledged rogue actors.
Our patience will achieve more than our force.
—Edmund Burke
B, directly threatened by A, joins with C, D, and E, potentially threatened by A, to foil A’s design.
—Hans Morgenthau, Politics among Nations
Make no mistake, the ultimate guarantee against the success of aggressors, dictators, and terrorists in the 21st century, as in the 20th, is hard power—the size, strength and global reach of the United States military.
—Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
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Notes
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© 2012 Thomas H. Henriksen
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Henriksen, T.H. (2012). Lesser Rogues and Troublesome States. In: America and the Rogue States. American Foreign Policy in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137006400_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137006400_6
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