VVThe period leading up to the revolutionary war is noteworthy for establishing the primacy of the security of the community, above all else. What it meant to be American, implicitly and explicitly, required a clear enunciation and, for the time at least, was tied to allegations of opposition to the cause of America. Differentiating the status of those subjects loyal to the British monarchy and citizens disloyal to the United States troubled colonial courts until the Treaty of 1783. The Declaration of 1776 defined sovereignty for the founders of the new republic, and in the process identified the other, potential domestic insurgents whose activities could then be preempted, sparing the nascent revolution damages.1
VVAnxiety about security at the birth of the nation continues to dominate national security concerns today, reasserting itself post 9/11 in the form of the 2002 National Security Strategy and the Doctrine of Preemption contained therein, to challenge accepted meanings of sovereignty. The first duty of the United States government is to protect the American people and American interests. Section V of the National Security Strategy supports that controversial claim; “It is an enduring American principle that this duty obligates the government to anticipate and counter threats.” Obligated to anticipate threats is the key phrase here, where the etymology of anticipate denotes an action based on an expectation. It is this obligation to anticipate threats upon which the Doctrine of Preemption rests. In designating anticipation as a strategic alternative, the Bush Administration seized authority to initiate military action to thwart any adversarial behavior before it could be realized. The role of strategic anticipation, post 9/11, reinvigorated the strength and innocence of the community after contact with an other by repositioning internal anxieties externally. Incorporating the 2002 Steven Spielberg sci-fi film noire Minority Report as an interpretive allegory, the Doctrine of Preemption is argued as a contemporary referent of American sovereignty, insofar as it domesticates the global theatre of deterrence with preemption articulated as a potential response.[1]
8881. James H. Kettner, (Williamsburg: University of North Carolina Press, 1978) p178-9. Up to the Treaty of 1783, the capital punishment for treason resulted in 1 known execution in New England, 4 in Pennsylvania, 1 each in Maryland and Connecticut, and none in Virginia and most of the middle and southern colonies. Those numbers may be misleading; of those convicted of treason in Maryland only the leader was hanged, with at least one, possibly four, being given the option of enlisting. In Connecticut two men were hanged for deserting the navy, raising the possibility of many more perhaps meeting similar fates at the hands of military justice. Kettner, footnotes no. 22-26 on p 182-183. Jefferson, Thomas, the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.
76
Colonies, by the Continental Congress resulted in the Declaration of Independence being drafted and issued within the week.