Can The U.S Be Termed As A Rogue State? |
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a rogue state can be defined as a “nation that is considered very dangerous to other nations”. The United States termed North Korea, Cuba, Iran and Libya as rogue states threatening regional peace and security. However, in the recent past, it is the U.S. that has been called a rogue state because of its military intervention in different parts of the world; using force to quell opposition and expel illegal immigrants by deploying the National Guard. Threats under the Trump administration towards Greenland, Mexico, Panama and Iran, and its recent act of regime change in Venezuela, can be described as actions of a rogue state.
The Oxford Research Encyclopedia describes a rogue state as follows: “In their simplest form, ‘rogue states’ can be defined as aggressive states that seek to upset the balance of power of the international system either by acquiring weapons of mass destruction or by sponsoring international terrorism”. Furthermore, it notes that “the United States continues to define ‘rogue states’ based on their external characteristics, and this has contributed to the adoption of largely inconsistent policies that exacerbated their threat. Therefore, the contemporary use of the ‘rogue state’ label is essentially an American creation, a way for the United States to reassess the post–Cold War security environment and structure its foreign and national security policies. Most of the international community has avoided adopting this narrative and the policies that it justified.”
In the recent past, critics have argued that it is the United States itself which is behaving as a rogue state because of its blatant threats to occupy Greenland and to use force to change regimes in Colombia, Cuba and Iran. The rogue state characteristics under the Trump administration are also visible in the deployment of federal National Guard forces to forcibly oust illegal immigrants. The recent killing of a woman in Minnesota by the federal National Guard led to widespread outrage, with 1,000 demonstrations taking place against the colossal use of force against unarmed civilians.