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Preferred term

preemptive war  

Definition

  • The concept of preemptive war refers to a legitimate anticipatory war waged by a state in order to counter a threat emanating from an adversary. Like many other notions used as much by politicians as by scholars, preemptive war is an essentially contested concept, all the more so as it cannot easily be dissociated from the concept of preventive war. [Source: International Encyclopedia of Political Science; Preemptive War]

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URI

https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/preemptive_war

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