Chinese Attitudes on Preventive War and the Preemption Doctrine""

Abstract

Abstract : With the release of President Bush's first National Security Strategy (NSS) in September 2002, the administration articulated a bold claim about the use of military force that had been crystallizing in American strategic circles over the previous decade. According to a central element in the emerging -Bush Doctrine, launching attacks against so-called rogue states suspected of pursuing weapons of mass destruction was a normatively legitimate and strategically necessary response to the changing threat environment. While the Bush administration used the language of -peremption to characterize this policy option, the logic of using force under these circumstances was drawn directly from the concept of preventive war.