The Rise and Fall of the U.N. Charter's Use of Force Rules

American policy makers and international lawyers sit in a parallel universe. Policy makers determine whether to use force in any given situation by examining the costs and benefits. International lawyers engage in legal analysis, which rarely plays a role in the policy makers' decisions. This paper examines three different elements of American foreign policy: (1) the American foreign policy objectives, (2) the means by which those objectives are pursued, and (3) the way in which the United States should deal with a world in which the U.N. collective security system has collapsed.