Justifying War in the Post-Cold War Era: Shifting Norms of International Society?

摘要

These two cases show a clear shift in the justificatory discourses for war as employed by two US Presidents. National interest and "egoist" morality justifications were a common feature of both interventions, but it is the dramatic shift in the primary justification that is the most illuminating. The discourses show that national interest remained a vital part of any attempt by a US President to justify sending US forces into war. President George H. Bush's calls for an NWO certainly seemed to capture the imagination more successfully than President Clinton's humanitarian claims, particularly in the wake of US experience in Somalia. It is this primary justification that is the most interesting to note. National interest is traditionally seen as the primary US discourse and yet both these cases demonstrate a clear reference to something external to, or greater than, the US. International legal justifications looked to a future in which the UN worked as its designers had intended and the US took up a position from within the UN as indicated in its justifications to uphold the values of the UN.