In the Bush era Iran and North Korea were branded 'rogue' states for their flouting of international norms, and changing their regimes was the administrations goal. The Obama administration has chosen instead to call the countries nuclear 'outliers' and has proposed means other than regime change to bring them back into 'the community of nations.' Outlier States, the successor to Litwaks influential Regime Change: U.S. Strategy through the Prism of 9/11 (2007), explores this significant policy adjustment and raises questions about its feasibility and its possible consequences. Do international norms apply only to states external behavior, as it might relate, for example, to nuclear proliferation and terrorism, or do they matter no less for states internal behavior, as it might affect a populations human rights? What is the appropriate role for the United States in the process of reintegration? Americas military power remains unmatched, but can the nation any longer shape singlehandedly an increasingly multi-polar international system? What do the precedents set in Iraq and Libya teach us about how current outliers can be integrated into the international community? And perhaps most important, how should the United States respond if outlier regimes eschew integration as a threat to their survival and continue to augment their nuclear capabilities?
The key question it askshow to integrate, or reintegrate countries that have separated themselves from the international communityis one that will be at the very top of the foreign policy agenda for the next administration. This is an extremely important work of political science.Mitchell Reiss, Former Director of Policy Planning, U.S. Department of StateDrawing on historical and theoretical analysis, Robert Litwak makes a timely and illuminating case for nuanced American policies toward Iran and North Korea, two of the most challenging countries in American foreign policy today. This book can serve as a strong foundation for policy debates on American diplomacy and strategy in the years ahead. Outlier States is policy-relevant scholarship at its finest.Lee H. Hamilton, Center on CongressIt is a masterly study that contributes significantly to our knowledge of outlier states and how best to deal with them. I believe that it will become an essential work in the field of strategic studies.Ronald Steel, University of Southern California
