Record Details

Hegemony and Humanitarian Norms: The U.S. Legitimation of Toxic Violence

Journal of World-Systems Research

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Field Value
 
Title Hegemony and Humanitarian Norms: The U.S. Legitimation of Toxic Violence
 
Creator Bonds, Eric
 
Subject legitimation; hegemony; humanitarian norms; chemical weapons; Vietnam War; War on Drugs
 
Description Despite widespread beliefs that the United States has not used chemical weapons since the distant past of World War I, this study suggests a more complicated history by examining U.S. use of herbicides and incapacitating gases in the Vietnam War and its use of herbicides in the "War on Drugs." This article places such use of toxic violence within a context of U.S. hegemony, by which U.S. officials have used contested forms of violence to secure geopolitical goals, but have also been pressured to comply with humanitarian norms or-when there is a gap between norms and state policy-to do legitimating work in order to maintain domestic and international consent. Based on case study analysis of archival and secondary sources, this article identifies three main techniques U.S. officials use to legitimate contested forms of violence. These techniques are defensive categorization, humanitizing discourse, and surrogacy.
 
Publisher University Library System, University of Pittsburgh
 
Date 2013-03-26
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
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Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/521
10.5195/jwsr.2013.521
 
Source Journal of World-Systems Research; Volume 19, Number 1, Winter 2013; 82-107
1076-156X
 
Language eng
 
Relation http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/521/533
 
Rights Copyright (c) 2015 Eric Bonds
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0