The Wartime Justification Trajectory: A Dynamic Approach to Justifying Wars in the 21st Century

Mihai Alexandrescu
Additional contact information
Mihai Alexandrescu: Department of International Studies and Contemporary History, Babeș‐Bolyai University, Romania

Politics and Governance, 2025, vol. 13

Abstract: This article proposes a new framework, the “wartime justification trajectory,” for understanding how military interventions are justified and contested over time. Rather than treating legitimacy as something decided only at the start of a war, the model views it as a shifting process shaped by events on the ground, political rhetoric, and public reaction. The wartime justification trajectory outlines four phases—initial justification, conflict dynamics, social reactions, and post-conflict evaluations—that evolve as conflicts progress. Drawing on case studies from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Ukraine, the article traces how leaders revised their justifications in response to changing conditions and how public support correspondingly rose or fell. The analysis combines discourse analysis with public opinion data to demonstrate that legitimacy is not fixed but rather constantly renegotiated. By highlighting these recurring phases, the study contributes to ongoing debates in international relations and political communication, offering a practical tool for assessing when and why wars lose the support they initially command.

Keywords: Afghanistan; Iraq; just war; norm contestation; public opinion; Ukraine; war legitimacy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/10044 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:poango:v13:y:2025:a:10044

DOI: 10.17645/pag.10044

Access Statistics for this article

Politics and Governance is currently edited by Carolina Correia

More articles in Politics and Governance from Cogitatio Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by António Vieira () and IT Department ().