Limits of Law, Prerogatives of Power

NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia was justified. NATO violated the United Nations Charter - but nations have used armed force so often that the ban on non-defensive use of force has been cast into doubt. Dangerous cracks in the international legal order have surfaced - widened, ironically, by the UN Security Council itself, which has ridden roughshod over the Charter's ban on intervention. Yet nations remain hopelessly divided on what the rules should be. An unplanned geopolitical order has thus emerged - posing serious dilemmas for American policy-makers in a world where intervention will be judged more by wisdom than by law.

Kosovo and the United Nations Charter The Effect of State Custom and Practice on the Charter State Practice: The Charter and Interstate Violence Security Council Practice: The Charter and Intrastate Violence More 'Deniers,' New Scepticism The Implications of NATO's Actions in Kosovo Intervention in the Twenty-First Century Planning for the Past