ABSTRACT

In the period following the events of 11 September 2001 the troubles with the ‘war on terror’ have proved manifold. In a few years the United States went from being the champion of a righteous cause to occupying a position where many in the world saw it as being the major source of much of the globe’s problems. One reason for this was that the Bush administration’s basic stance towards inter-

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national affairs was summed up in the immortal phrase of the president: ‘you’re with us or you’re against us’. In other words, no grey zones were to be allowed as the United States and its willing allies went on a modern crusade to extinguish terrorism and spread democracy to the Middle East. Thus, the Bush administration, buoyed by an electorate craving action against what former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld once characterized as ‘evil-doers’, brushed aside international organizations and those stressing the need for diplomacy and multilateralism.