Conclusion: Selling a Just War

Abstract

The preceding analysis provides an exploratory assessment intended to push beyond the anecdotal impression that just war theory matters in US foreign policy, in order to address the more compelling question of how it does. While it is possible for even a casual observer to find copious evidence of the saturation of the prevailing American wardiscourse in the rhetoric of just war theory, the manner in which the concepts embedded within that centuries old ‘decision-law’ concerning war are actually related to the decision to employ military force within the context of contemporary US foreign policy is less clear. The central question advanced here (e.g., how just war theory is employed to sell the decision to go to war as legitimate to domestic audiences by those responsible for that decision) is a direct by-product of that concern.