Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

The conservative observers, however, exported terrorism to the
eighteenth century and interpreted United States first naval campaigns abroad
against the ‘Barbary States’ as a complete success against terrorism. In his
article “Terrorism in Early America,” Richard Jewett concluded that:
The United States chose to fight the pirates of Barbary, rather than pay
tribute, as did all the other nations who traded in the Mediterranean Sea.
The decision was bold, but the eventual victory by the tiny United States
Navy broke a pattern of international blackmail and terrorism dating
back more than one hundred and fifty years. 4
The deployment of the analogy between piracy and terrorism led to two
different assessments. While the first analogy dated back to the bipolar world
of the Cold War and found wide echoes among the critics of American
imperialism, the second was prompted by the 9/11 events and found support
among the neoconservative intellectuals who preached a so-called ‘Bush
doctrine’ of unilateral intervention. 5
When subjected to two alternate
interpretations, the analogy between piracy and terrorism led forcibly to
alternate conclusions.
Contrary to left-wing and neoconservative approaches, this research
work has extracted debate over ‘piracy’ from contemporary interpretations and
placed it in its true historical context. When the so-called ‘Barbary piracy’
scrutinized for the period 1519-1830, lifetime of the regency of Algiers, this
research identified two sorts of plunder on the high seas: lawful and unlawful
4 Thomas Jewett, “Terrorism in Early America: The U.S. Wages War against the Barbary States to End
International Blackmail and Terrorism.” Early America Review 4, no. 1, (Winter-Spring 2002), p. 1.
(Accessed 18 May 2007). http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/2002_winter_spring/terrorism.htm
5 Paul Lyons, “George W. Bush’s City on a Hill,” The Journal of the Historical Society, 6:1 (March
2006), 119.
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