Abstract
Few nations go to war believing their cause to be unjust and Great Britain in September 1939 was no exception to this rule. Even though Britain's war aims often lacked precise definition, being strangely intangible in the early months of the war and later moving uneasily between the incompatible goals of Germany's unconditional surrender and the restoration of a balance of power in Europe, there was nonetheless a recurring theme in public expressions of Britain's objectives in the war of 1939-45. This was the claim to moral superiority over the Axis powers. Britain was fighting the evils of Nazism and Fascism not simply to safeguard her own national interests but to ensure the stability of the international system. She was attempting, so her leaders claimed and her honouring of her guarantee to Poland supposedly confirmed, to protect the rights of weak nations against the strong, to guarantee the sanctity of international agreements and to make discussion not force the means of settling disputes between nations. In essence, Britain claimed to be fighting Germany to re-establish the rule of international law.
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