CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY DAREN BOWYER JUST WAR DOCTRINE

asymmetrical means to render ineffective the West’s superiority in conventional and
high-technology weaponry. Less considered is the way the West makes war when it has
the initiative. As we shall see it too has sought – and continues to seek – asymmetries.
The West’s preferred means of making war will also have an impact on jus in bello.
The Theory of Democratic Peace, with its roots in Kant’s Perpetual Peace 2 holds that
democracies do not go to war with one another. 3 It is the philosophical underpinning for
the Clinton Doctrine, articulated in the 1995 US National Security Document, A
Strategy of Engagement and Enlargement, 4 which establishes three pillars for US
foreign policy, summarised as ‘the retention of global military predominance, the quest
for continued economic prosperity, and the promotion of free market democracy
abroad.’ 5 Thus it also provided the logic for NATO expansion and also for the policy
of humanitarian intervention. Put simply, the theory supposes that since in a democracy
it is the people who determine government policy, and since it is the people who suffer
most in war, democracies will be inclined to avoid war; since they can further ascribe
similar views and cultural outlook to other democracies, their positions are mutually
reinforcing and democracies are unlikely to fight each other. Realists/neo-realists are
unconvinced by the supposed empirical evidence which to a degree relies on the
definitions used of ‘democracy’ and ‘war’.
Whether or not democracies ever use force against other democracies, evidence of the
last century and first half-decade of the current one suggest that Western democracies
are anything but averse to use of force. De Wijk argues that whether on moral grounds
or for the protection of vital interests, coercion of others has long been a characteristic
of liberal democracies. 6 He identifies three instruments of coercion: political measures,
economic sanction and military force. 7 European nations have tended to favour
political/economic measures whilst the US and a small number of allies, notably the
UK, recently have leaned more towards military means. However, even when there is a
preference for non-military means – coercive diplomacy or economic pressure – such
intervention in the affairs of others has had mixed success and there are times when
decisive action (invariably military) is necessary. (Non-decisive use of military force
has also frequently been a cause of failed policy).
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