"A pre-emptive strike against a potentially belligerent nation state is a legitimate form of self-defence." Is this a sound policy for the future?

In articulating what some exact described as the most far-reaching shift in American foreign policy for more than fifty years, chair George Bush summed up the US perception of the current strategical situation in the post 9-11 world,

We cannot put our faith in the word of tyrants, who solemnly sign non-proliferation treaties and then consistently break them. If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited as well as long. [In defending the US today] we face a threat with no motive [due to] the perilous crossroads of radicalism and technology coupled with the competency of weak nations and small groups to attain the catastrophic power of spectacular with chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. New threats require new opinion

        A world in which rouge states (weak nations) and outside(a) terrorists (small groups) imperil the US and other liberal democracies, potentially with weapons of mass destruction, still by traditional methods of deterrence, is one in which the Bush memorial tablet sees security as attainable by going on the offensive - first in Afghanistan, then in Iraq.



As to whether this pre-emptive doctrine can provide the basis for a vigorous policy for the future, this essay will seek to examine terce closely related areas; firstly pre-emptions legality - the conflict in Iraq was built up on the basis of the Bush Doctrine causing repulsion within the Security Council, which may yet prove to have been terminally damaging - can a policy be sound if its legality is in question? Secondly, how politically sustainable is such a policy? And finally, how practical is pre-emption - is it probable to be effective?

        In terms of customary international law (the body of law created by practice and precedent over time and distinct from that of treaty law), self-defence is sure enough recognized as a legitimate...

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