In December 1965, the General Assembly, without opposition, declared that “subversion and all forms of indirect intervention constitute a violation of the Charter of the United Nations” and can lead “to the creation of situations which threaten international peace and security.” By thus linking subversion and indirect intervention to a “threat to international peace and security” which the Charter text (Article 39) brackets with “aggression,” the Assembly may be seen to accept that the victims of such intervention are entitled to be the beneficiaries of Chapter VII collective measures ordained by the Security Council. It could also be argued that a state whose “peace and security” has been threatened might justifiably resort to the same use of force in “individual or collective self-defence,” as is permitted victims of armed attack by Article 51 of the Charter.

This modification of the strict literal text of Charter Articles 2(4) and 51 has been further expanded in the Assembly's 1974 Resolution, which stipulates:

This, in fact, seemed to be the principle implemented after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.