Between Rules of War and Rule of Law: Legitimation as a Strategic Practice in Norm Transformation

This book examines the legitimation practices of Presidents Bush and Obama in the transformation of detention norms in the war on terror. The focus is on the conflict between the US use of force and the commitment to protective norms of legitimate force. The central question is how both presidents used legitimation to justify normative changes in detention law, especially indefinite detention. The study analyzes strategic legitimation activities in the security policy discourse in which norms of legitimate violence shift from containing it to enabling it. The approach combines IR norms research and international law with a pragmatic-abductive method. Using case studies, event analysis and speeches, it examines how Bush and Obama used legalization and justification strategies to transform norms in the Guantanamo case. The resulting patterns lead to a concept of strategic practices of legitimation to justify violence in breach with international law.

Dorte Hühnert-Hugendubel worked as a research assistant at the Chair of International Relations and Development Policy at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Duisburg-Essen. In addition to US foreign and security policy, her research interests include the development of orders of force in the international system, norms research, practice theory and politics of international law in states of emergency.