Is the use of the term of « war » by the American administration, referring to the struggle against world terrorism, a judicious one, when the battle is a many-sided, long-term one, with a police, judicial, diplomatic and military character, and that it shall not be ended by an ultimate victory bulletin ? Several issues are entailed. Must adversaries be considered as warriors or criminals ? Should captives be war prisoners or illegal fighters ? Is it a particular category of « just war »? Can a preventive war be justified ? Within this context, does not a war against Iraq risk being « one war too much » ? How can peace be conquered ? Maintaining the proportionality of armed violence is important, lest transatlantic gaps be widened, as well as the Arab and Islamic world be increasingly polarised in favour of terrorism and its supports.
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Conseiller Maître à la Cour des comptes (France) et professeur associé à l’Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II, France). Senior Fellow à l’Institut International d’Etudes Stratégiques (IISS), Visiting Fellow à la London School of Economics, ancien directeur du centre d’analyse et de prévision au Ministère des affaires étrangères
Other articles published on the site
AFRI 2003, volume IV