The United States rounds up the usual list of suspects

The most predictable list in diplomacy was published yesterday: the annual roll call of "state sponsors of terrorism". Mandated by a 1979 law, the Bush administration has fulfilled its statutory obligation and there are no surprises on the list of infamy. As usual, in fact since 1993, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Cuba, North Korea and Sudan feature. The administration offers limited praise for Libya and Sudan, but it is very much the usual suspects, with the usual glaring omissions.

It is not just that Afghanistan, home of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's terrorist play pen, has never been on the list. It is that Yemen and Pakistan, both of whom have been accused of being complicit by their neighbours, are not even mentioned as having a case to answer in this tour d'horizon. Nor are Russia and China, often regarded as being implicated in arming terrorists. The administration's annual list has even been superseded by President Bush's snappier "axis of evil", a sort of premier league of international villainy, comprising North Korea, Iran and Iraq.

No one doubts that the nations on these various lists are dangerous. But what the lists do not take account of is the extent to which political change in some of those places has begun to detach them from the habit of sponsoring terrorism. This is most clearly seen in the case of Syria and Iran, both of which have moved away from their past habits. Cuba has more often been the target of US terrorism (such as assassination attempts on Fidel Castro) than vice versa. If the United States wants these countries to speed their tentative internal reforms, then the last thing they should be doing is stigmatising them and deploying the full weight of sanctions – bans on aid, loans and trade – measures that will simply reinforce their natural tendency towards isolation.

States as varied as North Korea, Syria and Sudan cannot be lumped together as if they were members of some tightly knit military pact. Some, such as Iran and Iraq, are deeply suspicious of each other. America needs a more sophisticated perspective on its enemies - real and imagined.