Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 15 - Interventions Triggered by Factors Unforeseen at the Adoption of the Charter’s Ban on the Interstate Use of Force

  • Hans Blix, International Atomic Energy Agency
  • Book:
    A Farewell to Wars
    Published online:
    09 November 2023
    Print publication:
    23 November 2023, pp 212-239

  • Summary

    The interstate use of force aiming at the acquisition of territory has been shown to have been rare after WWII. Interventions – actions without that aim but relying on open or shrouded or subversive use force – have remained common. Are they all illegal under Art. 2:4? Concrete cases are examined of interventions undertaken in circumstances not foreseen at the adoption of the Charter. They show an unwillingness in the UN to find force aimed at decolonization illegal. Contrived justifications for interventions undertaken in pursuit of the Cold War rejected, while understanding is shown for interventions using force in response to terrorism. Attacks – including interventions – that are imminent are deemed to justify use of force in self-defence, but attacks not seen as imminent do not. In line with this thinking, the use of force to destroy a nuclear research reactor that could have produced plutonium for future nuclear weapons was condemned by the Security Council in 1981. Attacks made with similar intentions – by cyber means and by assassinations – have nevertheless been undertaken.