PREDATORS AND PARASITES

PREDATORS AND PARASITES

PREDATORS AND PARASITES Persistent Agents of Transnational Harm and Great Power Authority Oded Löwenheim the university of michigan press ann arbor

Copyright by the University of Michigan 2007 All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid-free paper 2010 2009 2008 2007 4 3 2 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Löwenheim, Oded. Predators and parasites : persistent agents of transnational harm and great power authority / Oded Löwenheim. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-472-09953-5 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-472-09953-1 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn-13: 978-0-472-06953-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-472-06953-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. International relations. 2. Great powers. 3. World politics. I. Title. jz1310.l69 2007 327.1'17 dc22 2006006239

Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 1. Great Power Authority in World Politics 21 2. PATHs as Predators and Parasites of Great Power Authority 55 3. Enemies of All Mankind? The Barbary Corsairs in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries 80 4. We May Defy Moral Criticism If Our Execution Shall Correspond to the Principles We Profess British Moral Authority and the Barbary Pirates 134 5. This Country Will Define Our Times, Not Be Defined by Them 9/11 and the War on Terror 175 Conclusions 218 Notes 227 Bibliography 241 Index 265

Acknowledgments Many good friends and colleagues helped and supported me during the writing of this book. To all these people I would like to express my thanks here. First and foremost, I thank Robert Keohane, who in a seminar he once gave in Jerusalem encouraged me to think seriously about pirates and other delinquent transnational actors. It was he who rst showed me that my subject was kosher. I am greatly thankful to Jeremy Shine, former acquisition editor for political science at the University of Michigan Press, for his initial interest in this book. There are not enough words to describe how much I am indebted to Jim Reische, who took over for Jeremy at the University of Michigan Press. Jim was one of the most supportive and helpful persons I encountered throughout this project. I owe a big intellectual debt to Jeremy Paltiel, from Carleton University, for long hours of discussions and brainstorming. It was he who suggested the title for this book, and his ideas and sharp perception of international politics helped me to crystallize my thinking about predators and parasites of authority in world politics. I have also bene ted from discussions with many people from the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, where I spent two wonderful years as a Halbert post-doctoral fellow between 2001 and 2003. Ron Deibert, Michael Donnelly, Joshua Goldstein, Rick Halpern, Louis Pauli, Janice Stein, and David Welch always were willing to hear me and were happy to give good advice or insightful comments. The vibrant intellectual atmosphere at the Munk Centre and the seminars in which I presented some of my ideas were crucial for the construction of this book.

viii / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS And speaking of construction, it is a great pleasure to thank Alexander Wendt for his support and help throughout the years. Although I have not met him, I consider him one of my most important teachers in international relations. His writings and our e-mail correspondences stimulated me to think thoroughly about my thesis and to critically and rigorously examine every argument. Alex s theories in general and his comments on this book in particular provided me with one of the rarest things in academia hope. Richard Mansbach s penetrating comments on the book, as well as his common sense and experience, also strengthened me along the way. I will always cherish Dick s friendly, straightforward, and honest approach. Kal Holsti read parts of the book too, and his support was also of great help. Oren Barak, my friend and colleague at the Hebrew University, kept my spirits up during the last two years. Oren read large parts of the book, introduced me to the writings of Foucault, and found the weakest points in the book, and I always knew that I could count on him for intelligent criticism. Other friends from Jerusalem contributed much as well. Amir Lupovici made me contemplate the social construction of rationality. His encyclopedic knowledge of international relations theory was invaluable. Emanuel Adler was a friend and a source of wisdom. A single conversation with Emanuel can turn one s world upside down, and sometimes this was exactly what I needed. Tal Dingott-Alkopher s writings about rights in world politics also provided help and important insights. Avraham Sela shared his experience with me, and his frank comments on my ideas on Great Power authority helped me to return to reality from pure theoretical realms. Galia Press Barnathan, Yaacov Bar Siman-Tov, Uri Bialer, Raymond Cohen, Arie Kacowicz, Noam Kochavi, Korina Kagan, Sasson Sofer, and Yaacov Verzberger all gave very useful and helpful observations and helped to solve many problems along the way. Barak Mendelsohn, from Cornell University, also provided many thoughtful comments and raised very interesting ideas. I am also indebted to Gil Merom from Tel Aviv University for several important remarks in the early phases of this project. Benny Miller, from Haifa University, trained me in logical and scienti c thinking and was always happy to assist in solving any intellectual puzzle. Shlomo Grinner, Einat Vaddai, Lior Avni, and Gadi Heiman provided very useful research assistance. Mauricio Diamant helped me with reading Spanish. And without the excellent and intelligent linguistic and stylistic editing of Colette Stoeber this project would have remained in the original language it was written in: Bad English. My students at the

Acknowledgments / ix Hebrew University were my captive audience, and for their forbearance I can only be thankful. Generous funding during the writing of the book was provided by the Halbert Exchange Program at the University of Toronto, the Leonard Davis Institute for International Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Israel Foundations Trustees (Project #37/2004). Finally, I wish to thank my family for their love. My wife, Idit, and my son, Oshri, were a constant source of joy and warmth. How lucky and blessed I am to have them. My father, Avigdor, taught me from childhood to love books, and it is thanks to him that I became a scholar. My mother, Marta, and my sister, Nava, were always caring and loving. During the writing of this book my beloved cousin Eran Schwartz unexpectedly died. He was nineteen years old, a bright, sensitive, and intelligent young man. I would like to hope that he would have read this book. It is to his memory and honor that I dedicate this book. Oded Löwenheim Jerusalem, October 2005