Publication

This paper describes how the Bush administration has modified the US approach to the concept of preemptive war. The author details how the aggressive military strategy publicly advocated by the Bush administration to meet terrorist threats is not the same form of preemption that US political leaders had previously and only privately held in reserve. The paper explains that the Bush administration's interpretation and application of preemptive war failed in the case of Iraq and hence makes it more difficult for the United States to justify and apply preemption in the future.