ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some key terms that figure in the discussion – convention, norm, institution – and outlines some ways in which norms emerge to shape international politics. It examines the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact as the mechanism through which the idea of a general prohibition of aggressive war surfaced. The chapter looks at the impact of the Charter of the United Nations, as well as the Nuremberg Trial of 1945-46 and the Tokyo Trial of 1946-1948. It describes the emergence of the International Criminal Court, and the definition of aggression that was built into its Statute in 2010. The chapter examines Pakistani support for the Afghan Taliban as a problem which prima facie might attract attention as an example of aggression. It offers brief conclusions, of which the most important is that, just as in domestic political contexts, considerations of power may counterbalance the impetus to move towards a law-governed society of states with robust and effective enforcement mechanisms.
