Francis Lieber, Terrorism, and the American Way of War

Abstract

This article investigates the distinction between wars fought against "civilized states" and wars fought against "savages". It concludes that the United States has been disproportionately engaged in wars of the latter kind. This fact, the argument will be, has given a particular character to the way Americans deal with foreign threats. There is an "American way of war" of which the Bush administration's response to the terrorist attacks of 2001 is a characteristic expression.