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16 British J. Pol. & Int'l Rel. 1 (2014)

handle is hein.journals/bhjlplcs16 and id is 1 raw text is: BJPIR: 2014 VOL 16, 1-27 Contesting the International Illegitimacy of Torture: The Bush Administration's Failure to Legitimate its Preferences within International Society Vincent Charles Keating Research Highlights and Abstract This article, • is a contribution to the theoretical debate over whether the Bush administration's defection from international torture norms led to a norm cascade favouring the Bush administration's preference for a more lenient definition of torture; • is a contribution to the theoretical debate over the relationship between material power and the ability to legitimate preferences in international society; • is a clarification of the utility of material capabilities with respect to legitimacy; • is a detailed historical presentation of the discursive interactions between the United States and other states within international society over the defection of the United States from the torture norm which is currently not present in the literature. This article examines the effect of Bush administration's human rights preferences during the war on terror with respect to torture by analysing a large-n sample of public legitimation strategies of both the United States and other members of international society. The article asks two questions: first, has the defection of the United States from these human rights norms led to a 'norm cascade' that delegitimized the norms? Second, did the material preponderance of the United States help it to legitimate its preferences in international society? The article argues that despite initial ambiguity in the response to the Bush administration's preferences from key liberal states, there is little evidence by the end of the Bush administration's term that a core group of states supported their preferences, nor did its material preponderance help the Bush administration to legitimate its position. Keywords: human rights; international relations theory; trust; legitimacy Since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, human rights scholars and prac- titioners have expressed concern over counterterrorism policies that have led to a reduction or elimination of human rights protections in the name of security. Of particular concern were policies enacted by states within the liberal Western zone, the same states that had contributed significantly to the expansion and entrench- ment of the international human rights system since the end of the Second World War (Landman 2006, 124; Dunne 2007, 270), including the Bush administration's support for, and use of, 'enhanced interrogation techniques'. The apprehension \!fl@'. Political Studies © 2013 The Author. British Journal of Politics and International Relations © 2013 -ii:0 Association Politica Studies Association doi: 10.1111/1467-856X.12024

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