Meeting the Enemy: American Exceptionalism and International Law

by Natsu Taylor Saito

Overview

Since its founding, the United States has defined itself as the supreme protector of freedom throughout the world, pointing to its Constitution as the model of law to ensure democracy at home and to protect human rights internationally. Although the United States has consistently emphasized the importance of the international legal system, it has simultaneously distanced itself from many established principles of international law and the institutions that implement them. In fact, the American government has attempted to unilaterally reshape certain doctrines of international law while disregarding others, such as provisions of the Geneva Conventions and the prohibition on torture.
America’s selective self-exemption, Natsu Taylor Saito argues, undermines not only specific legal institutions and norms, but leads to a decreased effectiveness of the global rule of law. Meeting the Enemy is a pointed look at why the United States’ frequent—if selective—disregard of international law and institutions is met with such high levels of approval, or at least complacency, by the American public.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814741252
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	03/01/2010
Series:	Critical America , #65
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Natsu Taylor Saito is a Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Law at Georgia State University’s College of Law in Atlanta. She is the author of Meeting the Enemy: American Exceptionalism and International Law (NYU Press, 2010), Settler Colonialism, Race, and the Law: Why Structural Racism Persists (NYU Press, 2020), and From Chinese Exclusion to Guantánamo Bay: Plenary Power and the Prerogative State (University Press of Colorado, 2006).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments  Introduction: “A Distinctly American Internationalism”  1 Saving Civilization: The War on Terror  2 Civilizing the Other: Colonial Origins of International Law 3 “A City on a Hill”: America as Exception  4 Establishing the Republic: First Principles and American Identity  5 A Manifest Destiny: Colonizing the Continent  6 American Imperial Expansion  7 Making the World Safe for Democracy  8 The New World Order and American Hegemony  9 Confronting American Exceptionalism  Notes  Works Cited  List of Cases  Index  About the Author 

Editorial Reviews

"Saito has produced a synthesis that is thought-provoking and challenging, and it provides a welcome attempt to place the contemporary moment in the 'war on terror' into a much longer historical frame. Most of all, like all good critical scholarship, scholars and students can look to this book as a way to interrogate ones commitments about the American Project."

Law & Politics Book Review

"This book will help readers understand the United States contradictory and often shocking role in the international legal community. A violator of international law from the day of its declaration of & independence, America, as Saito boldly points out, is indeed the enemy to colonized people within and beyond its borders."

Sharon H. Venne

"A must read for those concerned about human dignity, justice, freedom from violence, and the rule of law in an increasingly interdependent world, Meeting the Enemy challenges the reader to consider the abnegative consequences of an exceptionalism openly embraced by elites in the Bush Administration and still fostered by an Obama Administration that is partly conflicted between rhetoric and deeds."

Jordan J. Paust

"Much has been written about the theme of American exceptionalism. Few works, however, possess the richness, range and depth of Saitos superb and timely book, which provides new and disturbing insight into the origins and enduring character of this exceptionalismand its consequences for America and the world."

Antony Anghie

"... is a pointed look at why the United States frequent - if selective - disregard of international law and institutions is met with such high levels of approval, or at least complacency, by the American public."

Los Angeles Daily Journal