In forbidding the use of force except in self defence against armed attach or when authorised by the Security Council, the UN Charter appears as the culminating development of a system of international order based on the doctrine of state sovereignty. The cumulative result of international law-related acts, omissions and declarations of the Bush Administration since its inception can be construed as a fundamental challenge to the sovereign state system. The Administration's stated security strategy is one possible response to undoubtedly grave challenges to national and human security. In fact, only institutionalised partnership between the U.S. and the next tier of consequential states can hope to address those challenges successfully in part because only it would have the requisite legitimacy. That partnership or concert could be organised within the UN framework albeit intensifying its hierarchical elements.
Bush Administration; Use of Force; Self Defence; State Sovereignty; National and Human Security; Legitimacy