This book examines US recourse to military force in the post-9/11 era. In particular, it evaluates the extent to which the Bush and Obama administrations viewed legitimizing the greater use-of-force as a necessary solution to thwart the security threat presented by global terrorist networks and WMD proliferation.

Aiden Warren is Senior Lecturer in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. His research interests are in the areas of International Security, US national security and foreign policy, US Politics, International Relations, and issues associated with Weapons of Mass Destruction, proliferation, non-proliferation and arms control. He is the author of The Obama Administration's Nuclear Weapon Strategy: the Promises of Prague and Prevention, Pre-emption and the Nuclear Option: From Bush to Obama.

Ingvild Bode is JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow in the Institute for Sustainability and Peace at the United Nations University in Tokyo, Japan. Her research interests are in the areas of understanding individual agency, norm and policy change at the UN, international humanitarian law and the United Nations system. She is the co-author of Key Concepts in International Relations (with Thomas Diez and Aleksandra Fernandes da Costa).

Introduction 1. The International Legal Paradigm: The UN Charter jus ad bellum Regime 2. Self-Defence in International Law: Pre-emptive/Preventive Requisites 3. Preventive and Pre-emptive Self-Defence in US National Security Policy: A Brief History 4. Bush and the Use-of-Force 5. Obama and the Use-of-Force 6. The Rise of Drones Conclusion - The Use-of-Force and the Making of Hegemonic International Law: from Bush to Obama