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Legitimacy of Use of Force in International Relations

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Legitimacy of Use of Force in International Relations
NAME: Abraham Kuol Nyuon

NUMBER: 1261936

WORDS: 1,499

MODULE: Warfare and International Relations, 7SSWM178, Term 3, 12-13

TITLE: How ‘global’ is the principle of legitimacy in international relations?

ASSIGNMENT TYPE: Short Essay

How ‘global’ is the principle of legitimacy in international relations? There is an increase debate among sovereign states, NGOs, INGOs, CSO, UN and other international organization on the legitimacy of the use of office in the international relations for self-defense, pre-emptive attack and humanitarian intervention. This essay will investigate the globality of the principle of legitimacy in the international Relations. This will be done by examining the historical development of the use of force, the legal standards for use of force and practical example of the use of force which qualify the principle of the legitimacy of the use of force in the global perspective as follows.

Firstly, the principle of the legitimacy of the use of force in the international relations can be traced back to the time of Aquinas and Grotius who strongly believes that, the rules governing the application for use of force in the society are obvious and simply governed by primitive societies.1 Therefore, Aquinas and Grotius were support by Brownlie who spelt out that norms are vital in the application of force in the international system through exploration of the concept of just war theory advanced by Cicero and Aquinas who says, war can be justified on three basis such as the application by authority of the sovereign state, for the just course and done for right intention.2 Moreover, another phase in the development was during the period of the league of nations as emphasized by Blokker wrote that, the League of Nations was established to regulate great wars in order to avoid the escalation of unwanted wars by surprise to sovereign States, in his view, this international institution was mandated to regulate the utilization of force in



Bibliography: Amstutz, M, R (1999), International Ethics: Concepts, Theories, and Cases in Global Politics. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. Arend, A, C and Beck, R, J (1993), International Law and the Use of Force: Beyond the UN Charter Paradigm, London: Routledge Publishers. Bjola, C, O (2007), Legitimating the Use of Force in International Politics: A Communicative Action Perspective, Toronto: University of Toronto. Blokker, N and Scrijver, N (2005), The security Council and Use of force, Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. Brownlie, I (1963), International Law and use of force by States, London: Clarendon Press. Cecil, R (1941), A great Experiment, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Clark, I (2003), Legitimacy in a Global Order, Review of International Studies, No.29, Pp.75-95. Coates, A.J (1997), The Ethics of War, Manchester: Manchester University Press. Evans, G (2008), Understanding Responsibility to Protect, Washington DC: Brookings Institute. Franck, T, M (1990), The Power of Legitimacy among Nations, New York: Oxford University Press. Friesendorf, C (2012), International Intervention and Use of Force: Military and Police, Geneva: Centre for democratic control of army forces. Grafstein, R (1981), The Failure of Weber’s Conception of Legitimacy: Its Causes and Implications, Journal of Politics Vol.43, No.2, Pp. 456-472. Hart, H (2012), Concept of Law, 3rd Ed, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Northedge, F.S (1974), The use of force in the International Relations, New York: the free press. Ronzitti, N (2002), The Current Status of the Principles Prohibiting the Use of Force and Legal Justifications of the Use of Force, Rome: Instituto Affari Internazionali. Schabert, T (1986), Power, Legitimacy and Truth: Reflections on the Impossibility to Legitimize Legitimations of Political Orders, in Moulakis, A (ed.) Legitimacy, New York: Walter de Gruyter Steffek, J (2003), The Legitimation of International Governance: A Discourse Approach, European Journal of International Relations, Vol.9, No.2, Pp.249-275. Walzer, M (2004), Arguing about War, New Haven: Yale University Press.

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