Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Legitimacy and the use of force: can the circle be squared?
- 2 Legality and legitimacy: the quest for principled flexibility and restraint
- 3 Not yet havoc: geopolitical change and the international rules on military force
- 4 Liberal hierarchy and the licence to use force
- 5 The age of liberal wars
- 6 Force, legitimacy, success and Iraq
- 7 War and international relations: a military historical perspective on force and legitimacy
- 8 The judgement of war: on the idea of legitimate force in world politics
- 9 Discourses of difference: civilians, combatants and compliance with the laws of wars
- 10 Fights about rules: the role of efficacy and power in changing multilateralism
- 11 Peacekeeping and enforcement action in Africa: the role of Europe and the obligations of multilateralism
- 12 Identity, legitimacy and the use of military force: Russia's Great Power identities and military intervention in Abkhazia
- 13 Dead or alive: American vengeance goes global
- Index
1 - Legitimacy and the use of force: can the circle be squared?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Legitimacy and the use of force: can the circle be squared?
- 2 Legality and legitimacy: the quest for principled flexibility and restraint
- 3 Not yet havoc: geopolitical change and the international rules on military force
- 4 Liberal hierarchy and the licence to use force
- 5 The age of liberal wars
- 6 Force, legitimacy, success and Iraq
- 7 War and international relations: a military historical perspective on force and legitimacy
- 8 The judgement of war: on the idea of legitimate force in world politics
- 9 Discourses of difference: civilians, combatants and compliance with the laws of wars
- 10 Fights about rules: the role of efficacy and power in changing multilateralism
- 11 Peacekeeping and enforcement action in Africa: the role of Europe and the obligations of multilateralism
- 12 Identity, legitimacy and the use of military force: Russia's Great Power identities and military intervention in Abkhazia
- 13 Dead or alive: American vengeance goes global
- Index
Summary
It is no great surprise that in the contemporary world the use of deadly force by a political grouping or nation-state or on behalf of international society should raise troubling questions of legitimacy. The problem appears to be massively overdetermined and the intellectual challenge is to bring some order to a confused and confusing debate; to distinguish between short-term problems and deep-rooted changes in both understandings of legitimacy and patterns in the use of force; and try and identify where there might be scope for narrowing the very deep disagreements that have come to surround this question. This article argues, first, that the legitimacy problems surrounding the use of force can only be understood by considering the way in which changing understandings of international legitimacy have interacted with developments in both the generation of insecurity and the management of insecurity; and, second, that although the ideology, strategy and policies of the Bush administration have undoubtedly been central to recent debates, many of the most important aspects of the problem reflect broad and deep-seated developments within global politics. The article concentrates on questions of international rather than domestic legitimacy – although it needs to be recognised that sharply divergent national perspectives regarding the use of force are of course one aspect of the international problem. The article addresses three questions:
What do we mean by legitimacy and how have both conceptions of legitimacy and practices of legitimacy politics evolved in ways relevant to the use of force?
How have changes in both the nature and management of international security complicated the legitimacy challenges facing international society?
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- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Force and Legitimacy in World Politics , pp. 15 - 32Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006