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37 N.Y.U. J. Int'l. L. & Pol. 357 (2004-2005)
Preempting Prevention: Lessons Learned

handle is hein.journals/nyuilp37 and id is 369 raw text is: PREEMPTING PREVENTION: LESSONS LEARNED MIRIAM SAPIRO* The invasion of Iraq in March 2003 continues to raise concerns on several fronts. Did the United States have the le- gal authority to launch the attack? Was it, in any event, a wise move? How did the intelligence community come to produce such flawed analyses? Will the United States be able to defeat the insurgency and stabilize the conflict sufficiently to reduce its forces within the next few years? When will it ultimately be able to withdraw? Has the situation made other states more likely to use force to settle disputes, or has it reinforced ex- isting prohibitions by demonstrating the risks inherent in us- ing military might? Some answers are discernible now and dis- cussed in this essay. Others may not become clear for years. This Article focuses on legal questions raised by the inter- vention. It examines in particular whether a coalition of the willing was engaged in a (mostly) unilateral exercise of pre- ventive self-defense. The answer depends on how persuasive one finds the justifications offered for the war. Unfortunately, arguments that did not appear compelling at the time1 seem even less convincing now. While it is clear that U.S. policy- makers had legitimate concerns about the intentions and ca- pabilities of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, it is not clear there were sufficient legal or political grounds for choosing the option of war in March 2003. That decision's impact on the viability of the rules governing the use of force is one of the most critical questions facing us today in light of the invasion. I. UNILATERALISM There was no significant mobilization of countries that thought war against Iraq was necessary or important enough to risk the lives of their soldiers. On March 21, 2003, the White * Miriam Sapiro served as Special Assistant to the President and as a Director at the National Security Council from 1997 to 2000. From 1988 until 1997, she worked for the Department of State. She is president of Sum- mit Strategies International and an Adjunct Professor at NYU School of Law and the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. 1. See Miriam Sapiro, War to Prevent War, Legal Times, Apr. 7, 2003, at 43. 357 Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. Journal of International Law and Politics

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