Casus belli is a Latin phrase meaning “cause of war” and refers to an incident that becomes a catalyst for military conflict. A nation must provide the international community with a casus belli before waging war on another nation. A casus foederis is when a nation uses a casus belli as a justification for asking for assistance from allies. The reasons for war are not always clear and can be heavily manipulated. Examples of casus belli include the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Casus belli is a Latin phrase that literally means “opportunity for war”. It is often translated as “cause of war” or “cause of war” and is used to describe an incident that becomes a catalyst for a military conflict. As a general rule, a nation must provide the international community with a casus belli before waging war on another nation, and if a nation expects to invoke assistance from allies, that cause is paramount. The term “casus bellum” is also used in the same way.
In some cases, a casus belli can be an incident that directly causes war, such as a pre-emptive strike or invasion. In this case, the international community often supports the conflict, arguing that a nation must defend itself when threatened. In other cases, the cause may be a pretext or justification for war, in which case the motives for war may be a little more obscure and a nation may have difficulty convincing the international community that its actions are appropriate.
A classic example of a casus belli was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914, which provoked Austria-Hungary into war against Serbia, eventually drawing much of Europe into the war as well and sparking World War I. Another was the Japanese bombing of the American port of Pearl Harbor in 1941, causing the United States to declare war on Japan, and thus on the Axis Powers.
In a related concept, a casus foederis, a nation uses a casus belli as a justification for asking for assistance from allies. A casus foederies requires an existing agreement or treaty between two allies. When the United States was attacked in 2001, for example, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) invoked Article 5, which states that an attack on any member is considered an attack on all. Assistance could then be offered, as the US had a clear casus belli in the form of terrorist attacks that appeared to be linked to Afghanistan.
The reasons for war are not always clear and are sometimes heavily manipulated. The circumstances of the Gulf of Tonkin incident used by the United States as a justification for the Vietnam War, for example, have been heavily questioned in retrospect by historians who have suggested that the situation may have been artificially created to manipulate the American public. . In other cases, a nation has had a clear casus belli and has chosen to attempt to resolve the situation through peace talks and negotiations, an approach many think is preferable to shoot first and ask questions later.
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