Abstract
Anticipatory war, as it relates to both preemptive defense and preventive strikes, is a contentious subject that has attracted much attention from political theorists over many years. Thucydides, for instance, framed the struggle between the Athenians and Lacedaemonians in terms of anticipation, while Machiavelli praised the prince who showed enough prudence and fortitude to act early and wage war in order to forestall threats from materializing.1 In the nineteenth century, Otto von Bismark took the opposite position and suggested that anticipatory war is very often a rash and foolish endeavor.2 Prompted by the March 2003 U.S.-UK invasion of Iraq, the debate regarding anticipatory war has recently been rekindled. In light of President Bush and Prime Minister Blair’s efforts to justify what many perceived as a dubious war on the basis of “preemption,” or “anticipation,” a fresh round of enquiry into the moral dilemmas raised by the anticipatory use of force has been initiated.
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Chapter 2
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© 2008 Cian O’Driscoll
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O’Driscoll, C. (2008). Anticipatory War: Sufficient Threats, Just Fears, and Unknown Unknowns. In: The Renegotiation of the Just War Tradition and the Right to War in the Twenty-First Century. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230612037_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230612037_3
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