Predators and Parasites: Persistent Agents of Transnational Harm and Great Power Authority

280 Pages·2006·0.63 MB·English

by  Oded Lowenheim

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
cPrinted 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
ISBN13 978-0-472-02225-0 (electronic)
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 Univer-
sity, for long hours of discussions and brainstorming. It was he who sug-
gested the title for this book, and his ideas and sharp perception of inter-
national 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 Alexan-
der 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 strength-
ened me along the way. I will always cherish Dick’s friendly, straightfor-
ward, 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 conversa-
tion 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 theo-
retical 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 observa-
tions and helped to solve many problems along the way. Barak Mendel-
sohn, 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 read-
ing Spanish. And without the excellent and intelligent linguistic and styl-
istic 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 child-
hood 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