Casus belli

Casus belli is a modern Latin-based expression meaning "occasion of war", used officially to refer to the grievances section of a formal Declaration of war. With this usage, and due to its common mispelling and pronunciation as "causus belli," — ie. resembling the English "cause" and the original Latin "causa" ("cause") — the term has the popular connotation of "cause for war".

Despite the apparent authority that the use of Latin confers on it, the term did not come into wide usage until the late nineteenth century with the rise of the political doctrine of "jus ad bellum" or "just war theory". Informal usage varies beyond its technical definition to refer to any "just cause" a nation may claim for entering into a conflict. As such, it has been used both retroactively to describe situations in history before the term came into wide usage and in the present day when describing situations when war has not been formally declared.

Formally, a government would lay out its reasons for going to war, as well as its intentions in prosecuting it and the steps that might be taken to avert it. In so doing, the government would attempt to demonstrate that it was going to war only as a last resort ("Ultima Ratio") and that it in fact possessed "Just Cause" for doing so.

Cause of use

Casus belli is generally used to avoid loss of morale in the country or nation, or to gain the support of the people. If a country attacked another country with no stated reason it may cause discontent among its populace, and loss of faith in their leaders, in extreme cases leading to revolt or other kinds of civil uprisings.

In modern times casus belli may not be focused primarily on convincing the population, but instead be aimed at justifying the action to the global community, which would equally affect dictatorships and militarily controlled nations who might not previously have had need of a convincing casus belli among its own people.

Historic uses

One of the earliest examples of a pretext to war was the mysterious sinking of the USS Maine ship which led the US to blame the Spanish and start the Spanish-American War. Some critics have claimed that the sinking was intentional ^*.

Since most wars have been founded on a casus belli, many examples of its use exist. For instance, when Hitler decided to incorporate Czechoslovakia into his Third Reich, he used a Casus Belli called Lebensraum. This means, roughly, "room for living", and was based on the poor condition that Germany was in after WWI, where the victorious Allies had demanded of Germany large payments in reparations, so that when the US withdrew loans provided to Weimar Republic, caused largely by the Wall Street Crash, Germany's economy collapsed. Because of this Germany was in a state of crisis when Hitler rose to power, and his plan was that if he could expand to areas with many resources, he could build up Germany's economic state and infrastructure. Instead of capturing colonies outside Europe, Hitler claimed that he needed resources close to him, so he could build Germany up fast. To help justify this he also claimed that he was merely reuniting Germany, since most of the areas he captured had formerly belonged to Germany (and had German-speaking people living in them).

The use of such a casus belli was well suited to the economic and political situation in Europe at the time. Britain, still exhausted from WWI, reacted to his claims by following a policy of Appeasement. Willing to make significant sacrifices to avoid another war, Britain did not stop the Germans when they started to remilitarize and expand. France was unenthusiastic about the appeasement policy, but was not willing to go to war alone ^*

There are claims that Pearl Harbor attack was a pretext for the US entry into WWII because US intelligence had broken the Japanese secret code known as "Purple" and were able to decipher all Japanese communications .Critics have also pointed out that it would have been difficult for a huge multi-Japanese carrier task force to have come to Pearl Harbor undetected.Other critics suggest that FDR provoked the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor [http://www.rationalrevolution.net/war/fdr_provoked_the_japanese_attack.htm

Casus belli was also a prominent issue during the Six-Day War of 1967. The Israeli government had a short list of casus belli that would trigger military action by Israel in the event that an Arab state took one of the listed actions. The most notable casus belli was a blockade of the Straits of Tiran leading into Eilat, Israel's only port leading into the Arabian Sea from which its vessels could reach important markets in East Africa and Southeast Asia. Passage through the straits was important since at the time Egypt was also prohibiting any traffic bound to and from Israel from passing through the Suez Canal. Such a blockade of the straits, in contravention of international law, was undertaken by Egypt following its expulsion of UN peacekeepers from the Sinai Peninsula and the Egyptian military presence in Sharm el-Sheikh at the southern tip of the Sinai. The blockade was a major factor in the start of Israeli strike against Egypt's airforce only hours before Egypt was to attack. Syria and Jordan both attacked soon after. Israel asked Jordan to end its attack, telling the ambassador it would consider the Jordanian attack to be a "salvo of honor", necessary as an ally to Egypt. Jordan refused and Israel retaliated, conquering part of Jordan.

Some historians have suggested that the Gulf of Tonkin Incident was a pretext for the Vietnam War.Vietnamese Naval officials have publicly stated that the USS Maddox was never fired on .

In 1995 the Turkish parliament issued a casus belli against Greece for the event that the latter extends her territorial waters from 6 to 12 nautical miles from the coast. Nevertheless, Turkey refuses to remove the casus belli despite initiation of preliminary negotiations in order for it to join the European Union.

There have been claims that the Weapons of Mass Destruction story was a pretext for Gulf War II ^*.

Casus Belli in Popular Culture

Canadian Bacon was a satirical comedy by Michael Moore about a US president who used the CIA to create a phony attack on the United States and blame it on Canada, intentionally creating conflict with Canada.

Wag the Dog is another such movie related to the topic of casus belli. In this movie, the president uses a pretext to attack Albania in an attempt to divert attention from a political scandal that he was involved in. It is supposed to be a reference to the indicident during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, when President Clinton ordered an attack on the chemical factories in Libya. Libyan protestors held up signs stating "Wag the Dog" referring to this attack on Libya as being a diversion to take away people's attention from the Lewinsky scandal.

In the American sitcom Seinfeld, Elaine enters Jerry's apartment and sits on his couch. As Jerry stands there, Elaine says "Casus Belli" in a humorous voice, saying she does not know what it means, but that it is a funny word.

References

^*.Gore Vidal: Imperial America.2004.

^*.James Banford.A Pretext for War: 9/11 and the abuse of American Intelligence

^*.[http://.www.counterpunch.org/zeese05232005.html}

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Cause of use

Historic uses

Casus Belli in Popular Culture

References

See also