Guantanamo Bay : a human disaster as a consequence of disregard to international law

Abstract

'Our strength as a nation state will continue to be challenged by those who employ a strategy of the weak using international fora, judicial processes and terrorism' stated the US Department of Defense in 2005. The US Secretary of Defence Donald H Rumsfeld made this statement four years after the War on Terror began. Yet, an overview of US foreign policy prior to the War on Terror highlights the strategy that the US government followed throughout the war. During the 'War on Terror', the underlying principles of the US foreign policy as applied by the US President George W Bush (2001-2009) emerged as the so-called Bush doctrine. The core objectives of this eponymous doctrine included unilateralism, preventive war tactics, regime change to control rogue states and the promotion of democracy.