Justifying America's wars : the conduct and practice of US military intervention / Nicholas Kerton-Johnson.

"Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Legitimacy in international relations -- Some methodological points -- An initial note on the cases -- Setting the context : intervention and norms in international society -- 1945-1990 -- 1990-2001 -- 2001 onwards -- Intervention norms and international society -- The Gulf War -- Background to the war -- President Bush's justifications for intervention -- UNSC -- The move to war -- The practice of intervention -- Post-war rebellion and safe-havens -- Conclusion: Old or new norms advanced? -- The Kosovo intervention -- Background and UNSC -- President Clinton's justifications for intervention -- The practice of intervention -- A humanitarian shift in international society? -- The intervention in Afghanistan -- Background to the intervention -- President Bush's justifications for the intervention -- UNSC -- The practice of intervention -- The Iraq War -- President Bush's justifications for the intervention -- UNSC -- The practice of intervention -- Revisiting the cases -- Justifications across the cases : a core legitimating norm? -- Practice across cases : standard practice? A shifting international society?

This book examines the justifications for, and practice of, war by the US since 1990, and examines four case studies: the Gulf War, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. The author undertakes an examination of presidential speeches and public documents from this period to determine the focal points on which the respective presidents based their rhetoric for war. The work then examines the practice of war in the light of these justifications to determine whether changes in justifications correlate with changes in practice. In particular, the justificatory discourse finds four key themes that emerge in the presidential discourses, which are tracked across the case studies and point to the fundamental driving force in US motivations for going to war. The four key themes which emerge from the data are: international law or norms; human rights; national interest; and egoist morality (similar too, but wider than, 'exceptionalism'). This analysis shows that 9/11 resulted in a radical shift away from an international law and human rights-focused justificatory discourse, to one which was overwhelmingly dominated by egoist-morality justifications and national interest.