Failed States the Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy

The world's foremost critic of US foreign policy exposes the hollow promises of democracy in US actions abroad and at home.The United States has repeatedly asserted its right to intervene militarily against failed states' around the globe. In this much anticipated follow-up to his international bestseller Hegemony or Survival, Noam Chomsky shows how the United States itself shares features with other failed states and therefore is increasingly a danger to its own people and to the world.Failed states, Chomsky writes, are those that are unable or unwilling to protect their citizens from violence and perhaps even destruction' and regard themselves as beyond the reach of domestic or international law.' Though they may have democratic forms, Chomsky notes, failed states suffer from a serious democratic deficit' that deprives their democratic institutions of real substance. Exploring the latest developments in US foreign and domestic policy, Chomsky reveals Washington's plans to further militarise the planet; assesses the dangerous consequences of the occupation of Iraq, which has fuelled global outrage at the United States; documents Washington's self-exemption from international norms, including the UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions, and the Kyoto Protocol; and examines how the US electoral system is designed to eliminate genuine political alternatives, impeding any meaningful democracy.Forceful, lucid, and meticulously documented, Failed Statesoffers a comprehensive analysis of a global superpower that has l