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As Darryl Li writes in the Universal Enemy, this new world order is characterized by two forms of armed conflicts: national ethnic wars and a "globally threatening militant Islam." The latter characterization is attributed to the attacks of September 11, 2001 against the United States, after which the figure of the 'Muslim' evil 'terrorist' was designated as the enemy of all humankind. In light of this, the present paper tells a story of the development of the international legal regime in the realm of counter-terrorism, focusing on the doctrine of anticipatory self-defence that was introduced by the United States' National Security Strategy in 2002. The paper argues that the novel doctrine of anticipatory self-defence introduced by the Bush administration not only undermines the principles of necessity and proportionality that govern the use of force under international law, but it also represents a neo-colonial extension of earlier colonial legacies of domination.