Preemption, Prevention and Anticipatory Self-Defense: New Law regarding Recourse to Force

On September 17, 2002, the National Security Strategy was published. This paper outlines the reach of the Strategy, focusing on the extent it creates new ground in asserting a right to use "preemptive" force. Traditional notions of anticipatory self-defense, found in the Caroline Doctrine, have been extended such that the Strategy allows the United States to respond with force to "rogue states before they are able to threaten" an attack. But, who has the right to determine whether a state may someday constitute a threat?