W8 Assignment "Preemptive Strikes"
Contemporary Political Issues
Preemptive Strikes
We’ve read both sides of the issue of whether or not the
United States is justified in conducting preemptive strikes.
But really, this is about us making decisions for ourselves
and justifying it (or not) to the rest of the world.
For this week’s assignment, you will need to take off your
“American” hat and take a new job at the United Nations.
Your job is to create a standard – a set of conditions if you
will – under which any nation in the world may conduct a
preemptive attack. What would those conditions be?
Use the cases you’ve read to write your conditions. They
may be more or less strict than the conditions we’ve
explored, but you may not argue that there are no
conditions. You will need to also use the United Nations
Charter to see exactly where your standards would fit.
The Charter can be found
at http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/
You should write this as an essay and not as a series of
questions and answers. Do not use bullet points, and do not
repeat the questions. Instead, write an essay that flows
logically, integrating your answers throughout your essay.
