Will They Know It When They See It? the Ill and the Crime of Aggression

Since almost the beginning of recorded history, there have been individuals who recognized the danger of aggressive wars and the tremendous cost they inflicted on the world as a whole. Yet for centuries aggressive warfare was an accepted manner of conduct for States. It was only as the weapons of war became increasingly sophisticated and able to inflict complete devastation on both combatants and noncombatants that scholars, philosophers, and diplomats began to work in earnest to devise a system for the peaceful resolution of disputes between States. The first real efforts to create a new world order that would prohibit aggressive wars can be traced to the years before World War I. But it was only after the world witnessed the catastrophe inflicted on Europe during World War I that momentum began to build toward a workable system that might truly prevent another world war. As recognition of the danger of aggressive warfare grew, people began to understand that aggressive wars were inevitably initiated not by the citizens of a State, but by the State leader or a small group of senior government officials. The search for a definition of aggression, therefore, diverged. Attempts to define aggression for political purposes with respect to State interaction continued while a new effort to define the crime of aggression began.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH is the author of 'Will They Know It When They See It? the Ill and the Crime of Aggression', published 2002 under ISBN 9781423549239 and ISBN 1423549236.