Rogue state

A rogue state (also known as a state of concern) is a controversial political term, used mainly in the United States, denoting a government which does not abide by international norms of behavior and whose leadership is irrational so that conventional methods of deterence are ineffective. Rogue states (when the term is used unironically by the United States and other countries and organizations) are almost always smaller dictatorships that severely restrict what those in the West would regard as basic human freedoms. They are generally warlike to the West and its allies Japan and South Korea in the East, and are often suspected of sponsoring terrorism. Under the Clinton administration, the term "rogue state" was rejected in favor of the more neutral term "state of concern."

The existence of rogue states, and the threat they pose to the security of some other countries, has been used to justify foreign policy and other political policy. For example, renewed interest in and funding of anti-ballistic missiles programs in the U.S. is, according to the most prominent public statements of U.S. officials, grounded in the concern that a rogue state may acquire weapons of mass destruction and not be deterred by threats of retalliation. North Korea and Iraq have been candidates for the name "rogue state."

Opponents to the concept of rogue states point out that leaders of even brutal and oppressive regimes act according to the logic of self-interest and argue that rogue state actually means "any state that opposes the U.S." Others accept the concept but consider the U.S. to be a rogue state; see anti-Americanism.

External links and references:

• U.S. State Department Drops 'Rogue State' Tag

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