Casus belli: Difference between revisions

The term act of war links here. For the computer game, see Act of War: Direct Action.

Casus Belli is a New Latin expression meaning "occasion of war." Despite the apparent austerity that the 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".

Officially, the term refers to the grievances section of a formal Declaration of War. In this section, a government would lay out its reasons for going to war, as well as its intentions in prosecuting it and the steps that could 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.

Modern usage, however, has expanded the definition of the term beyond its technical definitions to include any "just cause" a nation has 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. Possibly as a result of this, the term is commonly misspelled "causus belli," which would translate as "cause of war."

Today casus belli is also used to indicate a French role-playing game magazine and computer wargames.

Cause of use

A Casus Belli is generally used to avoid loss of morale in the country or nation, or to get the support of the people. In case a country would assault another country with no reason, it would cause the people to get discontent. In most cases, the people would lose belief in their leaders, since they didn't justify their actions, and this loss of belief could lead to revolt or other kinds of civil uprisings.

In recent times, a Casus Belli isn't focused primarily on the population, but also to the global community. And this is affecting dictatorships and military controlled nations, which didn't have much need of a Casus Belli in former times. It is the western democratic world that has drawn dictatorships and military controlled nations into the need of a Casus Belli. The people of these countries are very focused on personal freedom, and it upsets them that most of these types of nations do not take the peoples freedom into consideration. It was this lack of peoples freedom that made it somewhat irrelevant to use a Casus Belli.

Historic Uses

Since most wars have been founded on a Casus Belli, there are lots of examples, with but a few listed here:

• When Hitler decided to incorporate Czechoslovakia into his Third Reich, he used a Casus Belli called Lebensraum. This means room for living, and was based on the state that Germany was in after the WWI, where the victorious nations had demanded of Germany large payments in reparations, so when the US withdrew loans provided to Weimar Germany, caused largely by the Wall Street Crash. 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 Germanys 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.
  The use of such a Casus Belli was well suited to the current economic and political situation in Europe at the time. Britain, still exhausted from the WWI, reacted to his claims by following a policy of appeasement, as they were willing to make significant sacrifices to avoid another war. Therefore Britain didn't stop Germany when they started to remilitarize and expand. France wasn't as enthusiatic about the appeasement policy, but were not willing to go to war alone.

• Another famous example of a Casus Belli is when the Christian Church established the Crusades. The Casus Belli for this war against the rulers of Jerusalem, was that the Christian world needed to liberate the holy city from the "infidel" occupation. Apart from creating a common enemy in Europe, and thereby almost uniting the countries of Europe from their constant wars with each other, the Christian Church also created a hatred toward the infidel religions, and thereby fortified their own power in Europe.

See also

• List of Latin phrases