by Noam Chomsky
The period since has often been described as a “leaden age.” There was a huge explosion of very short-term, speculative capital, completely overwhelming the productive economy. There was marked deterioration in just about every respect—considerably slower economic growth, slower growth of productivity, of capital investment, much higher interest rates (which slow down growth), greater market volatility, and financial crises. All of these things have very severe human effects, even in the rich countries: stagnating or declining wages, much longer working hours, particularly striking in the United States, cutback of services. Just to give you one example in today’s great economy that everyone’s talking about, the median income (half above, half below) for families has gotten back now to what it was in 1989, which is below what it was in the 1970s. It also has been a period of the dismantling of social democratic measures that had considerably improved human welfare. And in general, the newly imposed international order provided much greater veto power for the “virtual parliament” of private capital of investors leading to significant decline of democracy and sovereign rights, and a significant deterioration in social health.
While those effects are felt in the rich societies, they’re a catastrophe in the poorer societies. These issues cut across societies, so it’s not a matter of this society getting richer and that one getting poorer. The more significant measures are sectors of the global population. So, for example, using recent World Bank analyses, if you take the top 5 percent of the world’s population and compare their income and wealth to the bottom 5 percent, that ratio was 78 to l in 1988 and 114 to 1 in 1993 (that’s the last period for which figures are available), and undoubtedly higher now. The same figures show the top 1 percent of the world’s population has the same income as the bottom 57 percent-2.7 billion people.18
It’s quite natural that dismantling of the post-war economic order should be accompanied by a significant attack on substantive democracy—freedom, popular sovereignty, and human rights—under the slogan TINA (There Is No Alternative). It’s kind of a farcical mimicry of vulgar Marxism. The slogan, needless to say, is self-serving fraud. The particular socioeconomic order that’s being imposed is the result of human decisions in human institutions. The decisions can be modified; the institutions can be changed. If necessary, they can be dismantled and replaced, just as honest and courageous people have been doing throughout the course of history.
List of Abbreviations
AFP Agence-France Presse
AP Associated Press
BG Boston Globe
BW Business Week
CSM Christian Science Monitor
GW Guardian Weekly
NYT New York Times
WP Washington Post
WSJ Wall Street Journal
Books by Noam Chomsky Cited
After the Cataclysm: Postwar Indochina and the Reconstruction of Imperial Ideology, The Political Economy of Human Rights: Volume II, with Edward Herman. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1979.
The Culture of Terrorism. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1988.
Deterring Democracy. New York: Verso, 1991; expanded edition, New York: Hill & Wang, 1992.
Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1983; Updated Edition, 1999.
For Reasons of State. New York: Pantheon, 1973.
Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1989.
A New Generation Draws the Line: Kosovo, East Timor and the Standards of the West. New York: Verso, 2000.
The New Military Humanism: Lessons From Kosovo. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1999.
The Political Economy of Human Rights, volumes I and II (The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism and After the Cataclysm: Postwar Indochina and the Reconstruction of Imperial Ideology). with Edward Herman. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1979.
Profit over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order. New York: Seven Stories, 1998.
Pirates and Emperors: International Terrorism in the Real World. Claremont, 1986; Montreal, Quebec: Black Rose Books, 1987; Amana, 1988.
Powers and Prospects: Reflections on Human Nature and the Social Order. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1996.
Rethinking Camelot: JFK. the Vietnam War, and US Political Culture. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1993.
Towards a New Cold War: Essays on the Current Crisis and How We Got There. New York: Pantheon, 1982.
Turning the Tide: US Intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Peace. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1985.
The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism, The Political Economy of Human Rights: Volume I, with Edward Herman. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1979.
World Orders Old and New. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1996.
Year 501: The Conquest Continues. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1993.
Notes
1. Christopher Thorne, The Issue of War (Oxford, 1985).
2. Cited by Melvin Leffler, A Preponderance of Power (Stanford, 1992), 78.
3. Kiernan, America, The New Imperialism: From White Settlement to World Hegemony, Zed press, 1978.
4. Samuel Moyn, Human Rights and the Uses of History (Verso 2014), a left-wing critique that “punctures illusions” by the scholar hailed as “the most influential of the revisionists” (Philip Alston).
5. On the grave threat to Russian security, see John Mearsheimer, “Why the West Caused the Ukraine Crisis: The Liberal Delusions that Provoked Putin,” Foreign Affairs, Sept/Oct.2014. http://www.foreignaffairs
.com/articles/141769/john-j-mearsheimer/why-the-ukraine-crisis-is-the
-wests-fault.
6. Sebastian Mallaby, “Uneasy Partners,” New York Times Book Review, September 21, 1997.
7. See Clinton Fernandes, The Independence of East Timor (Sussex Academic Press, 2011), currently the definitive study. A specialist on Indonesia, Fernandes was the Principal Analyst for East Timor for Australian intelligence, by far the best-informed western source.
8. Samantha Power, ‘A Problem from Hell’: America and the Age of Genocide (Basic Books, 2002).
9. On the reality, effaced in the current propaganda campaign and particularly in the President’s oration, one of the most disgraceful in contemporary history, see Noam Chomsky, “Obama’s Historic Move,” Z Communications, Dec. 21, 2014. https://zcomm.org/zcommentary
/obamas-historic-move/.
10. Gordon, “Test for U.S. Shift on Cuba Is Whether Rights Improve,” NYT Dec. 21, 2014.
11. 138 Cong. Rec. S4781-01 (daily ed., April 2, 1992). http://www1.umn.edu
/humanrts/usdocs/civilres.html. On the reaction to the US rejection of the convention by human rights organizations, see p. 151.
12. See Sujatha Fernandes and Alexandra Halkin, “Do Cubans Really Want U.S.-Style Internet Freedom?” https://nacla.org/news/2014/12/20/do-cubans-really-want-us-style-internet-freedom.
13. For a sample, see Chomsky, New Military Humanism (Common Courage, 1999).
14. For detailed review of these usually neglected and extremely valuable documents, see Chomsky, A New Generation Draws the Line (Verso 2000).
15. On his shocking record with regard to East Timor, see Fernandes, op. cit., 85, and for more detail, Noam Chomsky, Powers and Prospects (South End, 1996), chapters 8, 9.
16. On this intriguing sleight-of-hand, see Chomsky, Hopes and Prospects, chap. 12.
1. Rogues’ Gallery
A shorter version of this article was published in Harvard International Review, Summer 2000.
1. American Society of International Law (ASIL) Newsletter (March-April 1999). Detlev Vagts, “Taking Treaties Less Seriously,” “Editorial Comments,” American Journal of international Law 92:458 (1998).
2. Proceedings of the American Society of International Law 13, 14 (1963), cited by Louis Henkin, How Nations Behave (Council on Foreign Relations, Columbia Univ., 1979), 333-34; 1961 Acheson Report (Kennedy Library),
cited by Marc Trachtenberg, “Intervention in Historical Perspective” in Laura Reed and Carl Kaysen, eds., Emerging Norms of Justified Intervention (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1993).
3. “American Republics,” vol. XII of Foreign Relations of the United States (US Dept. of State, 1961-63), 13f., 33. See chap. 6, in this volume.
4. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, A Dangerous Place (Little, Brown, 1978).
5. See chap. 4, in this volume, and expanded versions, “ ‘Green Light’ for War Crimes,” in R. Tanter, M. Selden, and S. Shalom, eds., East Timor, Indonesia, and the World Community (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000), and my A New Generation Draws the Line.
6. George Shultz, “Moral Principles and Strategic Interests,” address at Kansas State University, April 14, 1986, reprinted in US Dept. of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, Current Policy 820; Sofaer, “The United States and the World Court” (statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Dec. 1985), reprinted in Current Policy 769. See my “‘Consent Without Consent’: Reflections on the Theory and Practice of Democracy,” Cleveland State Law Review 44.4 (1996).
7. On the International Court of Justice decision, the reactions, and the aftermath, see my Necessary Illusions, chap. 4.
8. Bill Clinton, speech before the UN General Assembly, Sept. 27, 1993; William Cohen, Annual Report to the President and Congress: 1999 (US Dept. of Defense, 1999), cited by Jonathan Bach and Robert Borosage, in Martha Honey and Tom Barry, eds., Global Focus (St. Martin’s, 2000), 180, 10. Madeleine Albright’s statement that the US will act “multilaterally when we can, and unilaterally as we must” in areas “we recognize . . . as vital to US national interests,” cited by Jules Kagian, Middle East International, Oct. 21, 1994.
9. For more detail, sec my Deterring Democracy, chap. 11, and sources cited.
10. On Lebanon, see my Fateful Triangle. On Turkey, see my The New Military Humanism. chaps. 3 and 5.
11. See my World Orders Old and New, chap. 1; and my Rethinking Camelot.
12. Audrey Kahin and George Kahin, Subversion as Foreign Policy (New Press, 1995).
13. Michael Glennon,”The New Interventionism,” Foreign Affairs (May-June 1999).
14. The Second World War, vol. 5 (Houghton Mifflin, 1951), 382.
15. See my The New Military Humanism, chap. 6, for sources and more extensive quotes. See also Defense Monitor (Washington, DC: Center for Defense Information), XXIX.3, 2000.
16. See my Powers and Prospects, chap. 7.
17. See my For Reasons of State for a review from the Pentagon Papers, one of their few surprises.
18. For fuller discussion, see my World Orders Old and New, chap. 1.
19. For more extensive quotes from the official record, see my Necessary Illusions, 263-64, and Deterring Democracy, 262-63.
20. Cited by Piero Gleijeses, Shattered Hope (Princeton, 1991), 365.
21. See my Year 501, chap. 8; and my Profit Over People, chap. 4; and sources cited.
22. On Lebanon, see my “International Terrorism: Image and Reality,” in A. George, ed., Western State Terrorism (Polity-Blackwell, 1991). On Sudan, see Colum Lynch, BG, Sept. 24, 1998; Patrick Wintour, London Observer, Dec. 20, 1998; NYT, Aug. 28, 1998.
23. Anthony Lewis, NYT, April 21 and 24, 1975; Dec. 27, 1979. On McNamara’s In Retrospect and the reactions to it, see my “Memories,” Z magazine, July-Aug. 1995; and my “Hamlet Without the Prince,” Diplomatic History 20:3 (1996).
24. Glennon, “New Interventionism”; Sebastian Mallaby, NYT Book Review, Sept. 21, 1997; David Fromkin, Kosovo Crossing (Free Press, 1999), 196.
2. Rogue States
This article originally appeared in Z Magazine, April l998.
1. Mark Curtis, The Ambiguities of Power (Zed, 1995), 146.
2. Jules Kagian , Middle East International. Oct. 21, 1994; Kagian, FT, Feb. 19, 1998; Steven Erlanger and Philip Shenon, NYT, Feb. 23, 1998; Clinton press conference, NYT, Feb. 24, 1998; R.W. Apple, NYT, Feb. 24, 1998; Aaron Zitner, BG, Feb. 21, 1998.
3. Colum Lynch, BG, March 3, 1998; Weston, Costa Rica, BG, March 3, 1998; WSJ, March 3, 1998; Barbara Crossette, NYT, March 3, 1998; Laura Silber and David Buchan, FT, March 4, 1998; Steven Lee Myers, NYT, March 4, 1998; R.W. Apple, NYT, Feb. 24, 1998 (Lott); Steven Erlanger and Philip Shenon, NYT, Feb. 23, 1998 (McCain, Kerry); Aaron Zitner, “A Visible Kerry Turns Tough on Crisis,” BG, Feb. 21, 1998.
4. Editorial, BG, Feb. 27, 1998; William Pfaff, BG, Feb. 23, 1998; Ronald Steel, NYT, March 1, 1998.
5. Nov. 29, 1990.
6. Aug. 2, 1990.
7. Editorial, FT, March 2, 1998.
8. See chap. 1, p. 4, in this volume.
9. See my Culture of Terrorism, 67f.; and my Necessary Illusions, 82f., 94f., 270.
10. National Security Cou ncil 5429/2; my emphasis.
11. See my For Reasons of State, 100ff.; Pirates and Emperors, 140; UN Ambassador Thomas Pickering and Justice Dept., cited in my Deterring Democracy, 147; and World Orders Old and New, 16f.; George Kahin, Intervention (Knopf, 1986), 74.
12. Steven Donziger, ed., The Real War on Crime: The Report of the National Criminal Justice Commission (HarperCollins, 1996); Nils Christie, Crime Control as Industry (Routledge, 1993); Michael Tonry, Malign Neglect: Race, Crime, and Punishment in America (Oxford, 1995); Randall Shelden and William Brown, Criminal Justice (Wadsworth, forthcoming). See chap. 5.
13. “Irrationality Suggested to Intimidate US Enemies,” AP, BG. March 2, 1998. See chaps. 1, 7, and 8, in this volume, for further details. On the Israeli theory, see my Fateful Triangle, 464ff.
14. George Bush, National Security Strategy of the United States, White House, March 1990; for more extensive quotations, see my Deterring Democracy, chap. 1.
15. On these matters and what follows, see my articles in Z magazine in 1990-91; Deterring Democracy (chaps. 4-6, afterword); Powers and Prospects. chap. 6; my article in Cynthia Peters, ed., Collateral Damage: The “New World Order” at Home and Abroad (South End, 1992). Also Dilip Hiro, Desert Shield to Desert Storm (Routledge, 1992); Douglas Kellner, The Persian Gulf TV War (Westview, 1992); Miron Rezun, Saddam Hussein’s Gulf Wars (Praeger, 1992); and a number of useful collections. There is also a much (self)-praised “scholarly history” by Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh, which contains useful information but with serious omissions and errors: The Gulf Conflict 1990-1991: Diplomacy and War in the New World Order (Princeton, 1992). See my World Orders Old and New, chap. 1, note 18; and my “World Order and Its Rules,” Journal of Law and Society (Cardiff, Wales), Summer 1993.
16. Ronald Steel, NYT, March 1, 1998.
17. Cited by Charles Glass, Prospect (London), March 1998.
18. See chaps. 1 and 4, in this volume.
19. See my articles in Z magazine from the Madrid conference in 1991 through the Oslo conference in 1993, and beyond. Also Deterring Democracy, chap. 6 and afterword; Powers and Prospects, chap. 6; World Orders Old and New, chap. 3 and epilogue; and sources cited. For further update, see my “The ‘Peace Process’ in US Global Strategy,” address at Ben-Gurion University conference, June 1997, in Haim Gordon, ed., Looking Back at the June 1967 War (Praeger, 1999); and my Fateful Triangle.
20. Serge Schmemann and Douglas Jehl, NYT, Feb. 27, 1998.
21. See sources cited earlier. Albright, Cohen, CNN live report, Ohio State Univ., Feb. 18, 1998; partial transcript (omitting the interchange quoted), NYT, Feb. 19, 1998. Trent Lott, BG, Feb. 26, 1998. Charles Glass, New Statesman, Feb. 20, 1998. Bill Blum, Consortium, March 2, 1990. William Broad and Judith Miller, NYT, Feb. 26, 1998. Scott Inquiry Report, Feb. 1996. Gerald James, In the Public Interest (London: Little, Brown, 1996). Alan Friedman, Spider’s Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq (Bantam, 1 993). Mark Phythian, Arming Iraq: How the US and Britain Secretly Built Saddam’s War Machine (Northeastern Univ. Press, 1997).
22. David Korn, ed., Human Rights in Iraq (Human Rights Watch, Yale, 1989); CARDRI (Committee Against Repression and for Democratic Ri
ghts in Iraq), Saddam’s Iraq (Zed, 1986, 1989), 236f.; Dilip Hiro, The Longest War (Routledge, 1991), 53; Rezun, Saddam Hussein’s Gulf Wars, 43f.; Darwish and Gregory Alexander, Unholy Babylon (St. Martin’s, 1991), 78f.; John Gittings, “How West Propped Up Saddam’s Rule,” GW, March 10, 1991.
23. Andy Thomas, Effects of Chemical Warfare (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute [SIPRI], Taylor & Francis, 1985), chap. 2. See my Turning the Tide, 126; and Deterring Democracy, 181 f.
24. On Vietnam, see my Necessary Illusions, 38f. On Cuba, see Chomsky and Edward Herman, Political Economy of Human Rights, vol. I , 69; and much subsequent material, including Alexander Cockburn, Nation, March 9, 1998.
25. The Struggle (New Haven), Feb. 21, 1998; Maggie O’Kane, Guardian, Feb. 19, 1998; Scott Peterson, CSM, Feb. 17, 1998; Roula Khalaf, FT, March 2, 1998. Tile impact of the bombing and sanctions was known at once; see Jean Drèze and Haris Gazdar, Hunger and Poverty in Iraq 1991, London School of Economics, Sept. 1991. For extensive review, see Geoff Simons, The Scourging of Iraq (London: Macmillan, 1996).
26. Hiro, Longest War, 239f.
27. AP, NYT, May 26, 1993.
28. NYT, July 7, 1991; June 28, 1993. On Kubba, Chalabi, see my article in Peters, Collateral Damage.
29. David Marcus, BG, Feb. 18, 1998; Roula Khalaf, Mark Suzman, David Gardner, FT, Feb. 23, 1998; FT, Feb. 9, 1998; Robin Allen, FT, March 3, 1998; Steven Lee Myers, NYT, Feb. 9, 1998; Douglas Jehl, NYT, Feb. 9, 1998; Charles Sennott, BG, Feb. 18, 1998, Feb. 19, 1998; Daniel Pearl , WSJ, Feb. 25, 1998.
30. David Fairhall and Jan Black, GW, Feb. 8, 1998; Reuters, BG, March 3, 1998; Douglas Jehl, NYT, Feb. 22, 1998; Jimmy Burns, FT, Feb. 15, 1998.