Introduction

The term "rogue nation" was first adopted by the U.S. government in the 1990s under President Bill Clinton to describe nations that were considered to pose a threat to the United States. The term was controversial from the start, as many world leaders and critics within the United States did not feel it was appropriate for the U.S. government to label entire nations as villainous. Responding partly to such criticisms, in June 2000 the Clinton administration adopted the term "countries of concern" in place of "rogue nations."

Soon after President George W. Bush took office in 2001, the term "rogue nation" was readopted. One year after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America, the Bush White House issued a formal definition of the term in its National Security Strategy of the United States of America. "In the 1990s we witnessed the emergence of a small number of rogue...