CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY DAREN BOWYER JUST WAR DOCTRINE

… I suppose American power is more respected ….. but then you have to count
against that, first of all, the loss of life…(and) continued costs -- they're
escalating, both in blood and money. But above all else, the loss of American
credibility, both at home and abroad, is something that's very serious. The fact
that the President of the United States is no longer trusted and his word is
not taken to be America's bond is a serious development. It detracts from our
power.
… ….
You cannot be leading if you are misleading. And that is just a fact of life.
Democracy is based on trust, on the covenant between the people and the
president. An international alliance of democracies is based on trust.
… …
The fact is that our credibility has been hurt. 158 (Emphasis added)
Credibility and trust matter in confirming the leadership of a hegemon. Returning to the
issues of legitimacy and soft power in ensuring unchallenged leadership, Joseph Nye
argues that whilst the first Gulf War was widely regarded as legitimate, the more recent
one was contested.
Unable to balance American military power, France, Germany, Russia, and
China created a coalition to balance American soft power by depriving the
United States of the legitimacy that might have been bestowed by a second UN
resolution. Although such balancing did not avert the war in Iraq, it did
significantly raise its price. 159
Because Turkey did not recognize the war as legitimate it refused to facilitate an
invasion from the North, through its territory, which impacted on US ability to wield its
hard (military power). Of course, Turkey had another key motive, in the Kurdish
question, but this notwithstanding it is difficult to imagine Turkey so robustly
challenging US hegemony, had there been more widespread, and especially NATO and
European, support for the US position. A failure of credibility and legitimacy, then,
detracted from hegemonic leadership. It is worth noting here, that legitimacy can be
damaged, if not destroyed, by a challenge alone – regardless of the validity of the
challenge, or legitimacy of the challenger(s); it is the challenge, not the source, that
matters. 160
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