The American and European intellectuals, along with their illiberal ruling and non-ruling elites, continue to define the nature of the state according to their own requirements within the parameters of development. The conceptualisations of the terms such as ‘developed countries,’ ‘underdeveloped countries,’ the ‘developed North’ and ‘underdeveloped South,’ ‘Third World countries,’ ‘developing countries,’ ‘African and Asian states,’ ‘modern states,’ ‘secular states,’ ‘religious states,’ ‘terror-sponsoring states,’ ‘narco states,’ ‘failed states,’ ‘criminal states,’ and ‘rogue states’ are part of their conceptual narratives, constructed on the basis of different parameters and shaped by their ideological orientations.

Most of these narratives were developed to undermine post-colonial states, non westphalian states and to construct an ‘other’ that supposedly requires modernisation, aid, and other forms of support for development. Such a colonial framework, along with its so-called civilising mission, continues to survive within contemporary knowledge traditions. These traditions shape debates on the ‘rogue state’ and help sustain dominant narratives about the nature and character of states across the world, often serving to undermine peoples and control their resources in the name of combating crime, containing terrorism, ensuring regional stability, promoting peace and democracy, protecting human rights, eliminating weapons of mass destruction, and curbing narcotics trafficking.

The notion of the ‘rogue state’ has been central to American elites in shaping US foreign policy during and after the Cold War, and later during the Global War on Terror, as well as in current wars justified in the name of destroying nuclear programmes or exporting democracy under the banner of human rights and women’s rights. In reality, these military interventions are often about changing political regimes to make them more compatible with American corporate interests and to secure access to oil, gas, and other natural resources.

Such a colonial framework of imperial plunder derives its ideological lineage from racial capitalism, which creates and sustains a system in which the “other,” deemed undeveloped, must be civilised and democratised—even if this requires brutal military interventions and wars. If the ruling elites of the so-called ‘rogue states’ compromise with American and European ruling elites, these Western elites readily form partnerships even with the most authoritarian, undemocratic, illiberal, and anti-women regimes in order to control natural resources. Thus, access to resources largely defines the designation of a “rogue state” within the logic and direction of American foreign policy which depends on “bombing for peace and democracy” in practice.

From President Nixon to Donald Trump, at different stages in the evolution and dynamics of American foreign policy, the US.State Department defined countries such as Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, and Yugoslavia as ‘rogue states’ because these countries sought to pursue independent foreign policies in managing their geopolitics and resources. However, during the Clinton administration, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright decided not to use of the term ‘rogue state.’ Instead, the US State Department started using the so called value neutral alternative terms such as “states of concern,”  which has changed later to “axis of evil” and “outposts of tyranny.” These discursive shifts in the conceptualisation has opened the floodgates for imperialist wars, military interventions, and regime-change operations aimed at capturing state power and controlling natural resources in the name of fighting global terrorism.

The Descartesian duality within Eurocentric knowledge traditions provided ideological justifications for such American imperialist adventures, often supported by Western European allies military agreesion in countries like Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, and Yugoslavia. These countries have been devastated by American political, economic, and military wars, as well as by sanctions, trade restrictions, and technological embargoes. Their primary “mistake” was to defy American imperial dictates. Many of these countries largely adhered to international law and the principles of the UN Charter and did not engage in actions that threatened world peace. Instead, regional conflicts were often imposed upon them through American interventions and through alliances with the most reactionary and autocratic forces within these regions and countries.

Who are the rogue states and their international crime syndicate in reality?

The United States has bombed thirty countries (Afghanistan, Bosnia, Congo, Cambodia, China, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Libya, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Syria, Somalia, Serbia, Sudan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, and Yugoslavia) since the Second World War. US is directly or indirectly involved in more than 236 conflicts and wars, and regularly violates UN Charter and destroying conditions necessary for world peace and resulting in killing millions of people in different conflict zones. Wars, deaths and destitutions are intergral to American imperialism and its rogue foreign policy. From the Balkan crisis, continuing sansctions and embargo against Cuba to interventions in Venezuela and Iran, US interventions are not a force for good. It is fundamentally against people and world peace.

Similarly, the Zionist regime in Israel has not only decimated Gaza—killing large numbers of Palestinian children, youth, women, and the elderly—but has also devastated the landscape to such an extent that the area has been rendered increasingly uninhabitable. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), Israel has carried out more than 10,631 attacks across six different countries—Palestine, Iran, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria, and Yemen—and has also struck aid boats in the territorial waters of Tunisia, Malta, and Greece in 2025 alone. In this context, Israel is often seen as surpassing even the United States when it comes to violations of the UN Charter and numerous UN resolutions related to peace and international law.

Both the United States and Israel continue to carry out military aggressions and wars against different sovereign countries without clear legal justification under international law. These two countries often appear to disregard the authority of the United Nations and the broader framework of international law. Together, these twin forces are frequently accused of contributing significantly to the erosion of the international order and the weakening of global peace. Their military interventions have resulted in large-scale loss of life, the destruction of homes and infrastructure, widespread destitution, and the disruption of livelihoods in many regions of the world. So, it is not difficult to characterise these two states as “twin rogue states” in practice. In this way, the imperialist–Zionist alliance does not serve the ordinary people of Israel or the United States; rather, it advances the interests of corporate capitalism, often at the cost of human lives, livelihoods, peace, and the well-being of the planet.

Therefore, it is important to struggle against the combined forces of imperialism, Zionism, capitalism, and their reactionary religious brethen in order to reclaim world peace for the survival of people and the planet. There can be no meaningful progress without peace. War has often served as a weapon of the powerful—used to kill, maim, and weaken the poor. It is also a tool that divides people in the name of nation and religion.

There is still time to think and act collectively for world peace by challenging and dismantling Eurocentric, colonial, and imperialist knowledge traditions, as well as the military-industrial complex led by the United States, Israel, and their Western European allies. It is therefore imperative to struggle collectively against this international system of power structure and its domination so that humanity may survive together rather than perish under the bombs of imperialist and zionist violence.

In the broader political struggle, it is imperative to transform the nature of states and their dependence on security-centric policies, governance by force, and rent-seeking behaviour, and to convert them into “citizens’ states.” Such states would uphold the interests of the people, deepen citizenship rights, and promote the ideals of peace, democracy, justice, liberty, and equality. There is always space for thinking and working towards global citizenship beyond the territorial logic of the nation states. 

© Eurasia Review