Editing Preemptive war (section)

==Legality==
{{Further|War of aggression|Jus ad bellum|UN Charter}}
[[UN Charter#Article 2|Article 2, Section 4]] of the [[UN Charter]] is generally considered to be ''jus cogens'' (literally "compelling law" but in practice "higher international law") and prohibits all UN members from exercising "the ''threat'' or ''use'' of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state". However, in the modern framework of the UN Charter, it is the phrase "if an armed attack occurs" in Article 51<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/chapter7.shtml/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090505055751/http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/chapter7.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 5, 2009|title=UN Charter: Article 51}} </ref> that draws the line between legitimate and illegitimate military force.<ref name="George"/> Some scholars believe it is reasonable to assume that if no armed attack has yet occurred that no automatic justification for preemptive 'self-defense' has yet been made 'legal' under the UN Charter. Others conclude that the "inherent right of collective or individual self-defense" in Article 51 includes the preemptive, or anticipatory, self-defense recognized under customary international law, as articulated in the ''Caroline test'''' noted above. (See [[Self-defence in international law]] for additional discussion.) In order to be justified as an act of self-defense, two conditions must be fulfilled which are widely regarded as necessary for its justification. The first of these is that actor must have believed that the threat is real, as opposed to (merely) perceived. The second condition is that the force used in self-defense must be proportional to the harm which the actor is threatened.<ref>David, and Henry Shue. ''Preemption: Military Action and Moral Justification''. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Print.</ref>