John Newhouse provides a well structured and reasoned analysis of the Bush administration's response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the resulting war in Iraq in his book Imperial America. He begins by pointing out the diplomatic errors that were made almost immediately after the terrorist attacks. Essentially, he argues that the concern for the United States across the world and overt empathy expressed by many nations provided several opportunities for the president to drastically improve relations with France, North Korea, Iran, Israel, as well as other Middle Eastern nations that were quickly squandered. He notes with respect to Iran, "Washington's harsh reaction, notably Bush's 'axis of evil' remark in his 2002 State of the Union address, damaged prospects for beginning to repair a bilateral relationship with Ira, a relationship with surpassing strategic importance," (Newhouse 4). Additionally, the United States' unilateral response to this terrorism was both misguided in that it weakened the international community and in that it was a strategic response to a non-strategic problem. .

             Newhouse writes, "Passive defense based on agreements among and between nations and international bodies is essential to limiting the spread of weapons and accidents, and to discouraging the use of such weapons by one state against another by terrorist groups," (Newhouse 5). The fact remains that nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction are a deterrent to war only when they are in the hands of predictable and public political entities. Accordingly, it is highly unlikely, in the absence of realistic missile defenses, that parties holding legitimate strategic positions-like countries-will resort to open nuclear war. As long as a political force draws its power from cities and states, provoking a nuclear attack assures destruction of these locations. However, any so-called "rogue" political factions, possessing no or unknown strategic positions, have very little to lose by utilizing nuclear weapons.