ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes whether the war against terrorism is a justified use of military force or illegitimate aggression, and thus whether the war's pursuit is the result of good or bad foreign policy. In traditional just war theory there are two basic categories of norms: jus ad bellum, and jus in bello. US policy with respect to the war's justification and objectives was largely informed by and sensitive to the normative constraints of the just war tradition. The norms of just war theory instead function as public and transparent universal moral principles against which state conduct ought to be assessed. The chapter describes the US war in Afghanistan as a morally and legally justifiable resort to force for purposes of self-defense and to combat the injustice of al-Qaeda's terrorism. As the attacks of 11 September clearly demonstrated, terrorism seeks deliberately and violently to harm innocents and damage the security of states and the international community.
