3 - Irrational Enemies

Summary

This chapter provides a comprehensive account of the rise of America’s preoccupation with the problem of rogue states in the US defense policy community from the late-1980s onwards. In contrast to most scholarship on rogue states, this account departs from both a realist epistemology and the treatment of rogue states as an ‘objective’ problem category. Instead, it shows in granular detail how the construction of a new post-Cold War security narrative centered on ‘rogue states’ was the result of a politically-driven discursive process that grew out of interagency bargaining dynamics, status quo interests, and the absorption of competing security narratives. This provided the discursive foundation for defining the post-Cold War era as dangerous because of heightened uncertainty, which in turn established a rationale for preserving major elements of the status quo in US defense policy and neutralized calls for deeper cuts in US defense spending.