Combating Jihadism: American Hegemony and Interstate Cooperation in the War on Terrorism

Although terrorism is an age-old phenomenon, jihadist ideology is distinctive in its ambition to overthrow the modern state system, abandon the principle of state sovereignty, and destroy the foundations of world order. Barak Mendelsohn argues that a crucial element in responding to such a threat and winning the war against terror in the twenty-first century is the hegemon—a powerful state that takes the lead and generates cooperation among states to fight jihad.

While most analyses of hegemony have focused on power, Mendelsohn firmly grounds the phenomenon in a web of shared norms and rules that both enable and constrain the hegemon’s freedom of action. He examines how the presence of a hegemonic state affects international cooperation, security, and international relations—revealing, for example, why the United States has found greater cooperation for the war in Afghanistan than for the war in Iraq. Tracing and explaining the varying levels of cooperation that exist for suppressing terrorism financing, for preventing non-state actors from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, and for offering military support to U.S. hegemony, Combating Jihadism provides a nuanced understanding of the interaction between norms and power.