CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY DAREN BOWYER JUST WAR DOCTRINE

This relates closely to what has been argued above about the importance of perceived
legitimacy, today, of US leadership and global dominance. It follows from the above
discussion of soft power, that hegemonic leadership is dependant not only upon
economic and military dominance (hard power) but on perceived legitimacy and moral
authority.
In part this is about trust, as has been argued above. During the 2004 US Presidential
election campaign, Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry drew attention to how, in
his view, the Bush administration had undermined that in engaging in a pre-emptive
attack on Iraq in 2003 without a proper justification:
I believe America is safest and strongest when we are leading the world and we
are leading strong alliances.
… …
No president, through all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I,
the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of
America. But … you have to do it in a way that … … your people understand
fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that
you did it for legitimate reasons.
Here we have our own secretary of state who has had to apologize to the world
for the presentation he made to the United Nations.
…(W)hen President Kennedy in the Cuban missile crisis sent his secretary of
state to Paris to meet with DeGaulle … … to tell them about the missiles in
Cuba, he said, “Here, let me show you the photos.” And DeGaulle waved them
off and said, “No, no, no, no. The word of the president of the United States is
good enough for me.” How many leaders in the world today would respond to
us, as a result of what we've done, in that way? So what is at test here is the
credibility of the United States of America and how we lead the world. 157
(Emphasis added)
Former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzizinski had made similar observations
when asked, during a debate to mark the first anniversary of the Iraq war, whether the
war had made America more or less secure:
On balance, I would have to say, and with genuine sadness, less secure. I think
we have increased the number of enemies. The global antagonism towards the
United States is much higher than before. International mistrust of the United
States is at unprecedented heights. And the United States is more isolated
internationally than probably at any point in its history.
117