Reshaping Rogue States: Preemption, Regime Change, and Us Policy Toward Iran, Iraq, and North Korea (Washington Quarterly Readers)

An analysis of the policies of preemption and regime change as well as an examination of US policy options for dealing with each country in the axis of evil.

In January 2002, President George W. Bush declared Iran, Iraq, and North Korea constituents of an axis of evil. US strategy toward each of these countries has clearly varied since, yet similar issues and policy options have emerged for US relations with all three. Reshaping Rogue States seeks to improve our understanding of Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as well as of current and future policy options to combat the threats these nations pose. The book's comprehensive analysis of preemption and regime change debates the circumstances under which each policy might be justified or legal under international law. Prominent strategists and policymakers consider alternatives to preemption--including prevention, counterproliferation, and cooperative security--and draw conclusions from efforts to bring about regime change in the past. Reshaping Rogue States also reviews the differing policy challenges presented by each so-called axis member. Specifically, it considers how the United States might strike a balance with North Korea through multilateral negotiations; the changes within Iran that call for changes in US policy; and the dilemmas the United States faces in post-Saddam Iraq, including continuing insurgency, instability, and the feasibility of democracy.

Alexander T. J. Lennon is the editor-in-chief of The Washington Quarterly, the flagship journal of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He is also a fellow in the international security program at CSIS, and an adjunct professor in Georgetown University's Security Studies program. He is the editor of The Epicenter of Crisis: The New Middle East; Reshaping Rogue States (MIT Press, 2008): Preemption, Regime Change, and U.S. Policy Toward Iran, Iraq, and North Korea (MIT Press, 2004); The Battle for Hearts and Minds: Using Soft Power to Undermine Terrorist Networks (MIT Press, 2003), What Does the World Want from America? and Contemporary Nuclear Debates (MIT Press, both 2002), and the coeditor (with Michael T. Mazarr) of Toward a Nuclear Peace (St. Martin's Press, 1994).

Camille Eiss is associate managing editor of The Washington Quarterly, the journal of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.