Rogue States: The Rule of Force in World Affairs
by Noam ChomskyAVAILABILITY: Usually ships within 2-5 days
Publication Date: 2000
Publisher: South End Press
Binding: Paperback
Topics: Corporate Rule, Democracy: Theory & Practice, Militarism, Race & Civil Rights, Spirituality & Religion
Description: In 'Rogue States', Chomsky holds the world's superpowers to their own standards of the rule of law - and finds them appallingly lacking. Described in a 1998 profile in the New York Times as "an exploder of received truths," Noam Chomsky is the world's most informed, controversial, and articulate opponent of political hypocrisy and abuse of power.
'Rogue States' is the latest result of his tireless efforts to measure the world's superpowers by their own professed standards and to hold them responsible for the indefensible actions they commit in the name of democracy and human rights. The United States and its allies come in for particular scrutiny for their numerous recent violations of the very international laws they claim to uphold, making them the real "rogue states" in the world today.
In analyzing the recent war in the Balkans, Chomsky challenges the legal and humanitarian arguments in favor of NATO's aggression, instead calling attention to the West's failure to support democratic movements in the region. Chomsky also turns his penetrating gaze toward U.S. involvement in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Central America, relying on both historical context and recently released government documents to trace the paths of self-interest and domination that fueled these violent regional conflicts.
Throughout, Chomsky reveals the United States' increasingly open dismissal of the United Nations and international legal precedent in justifying its motives and actions. As his analysis of U.S. statecraft reveals, the rule of law has been reduced to a mere nuisance. Characteristically incisive, provocative, and rousing, Chomsky leaves no bombshell unexploded in his evaluation of the West's shameless reliance on the rule of force today.
A good companion volume to the 'Case Studies in Hypocrisy' CD.
Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a world-renowned linguist, philosopher, and political analyst. He writes extensively and lectures around the world on international affairs, U.S. foreign policy, and human rights. He has published dozens of books, including 'Fateful Triangle', 'Powers and Prospects', and 'Year 501'.
Review(s): "Chomsky contends that the U.S. (and, sometimes, its allies) has... behaved as the biggest rogue state, ignoring international laws and norms and acting only in the richest American's interests... Chomsky's research can bring home disturbing issues that the mainstream media miss... Chomsky has delivered another impressive argument that the U.S. flouts international law when it finds it convenient to do so." - Publishers Weekly
"Noam Chomsky is like a medic attempting to cure a national epidemic of selective amnesia. ...Through shrewd analysis of internal documents and play-by-play accounts of the State Department's strategic moves, he reveals, for instance, that the American government supports state terror in Colombia... 'Rogue States' best serves the converted as a reference manual while giving others a timely guide to the tactics that the powerful employ to keep power concentrated and people compliant. Although it takes a dedicated reader to plow through the mountains of information, Chomsky's work is crucial at a time when our empire perpetually disguises its pursuit of power under the banners of "aid", "humanitarian intervention", and now "globalization". Americans have to begin deciphering the rhetoric. Chomsky's a good place to start." - The Village Voice