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8 - The Bush (41st) Administration – Edwin D. Williamson (1990–1993)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Michael P. Scharf
Affiliation:
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
Paul R. Williams
Affiliation:
American University, Washington DC
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Summary

I WANT TO TALK ABOUT THE LEGAL POSITIONS WE TOOK WITH respect to the use of force in the first Gulf War, both domestically and internationally. I chose this topic because it is still being debated now, and I thought we would want to review how we got to where we are today. I'll also talk about a couple of other subjects as well.

The Persian Gulf War

The development of these legal positions had already started by the time I took office in September 1990. I always like to tell a story that happened around my confirmation hearing on August 1: one of the statements I had planned to make (but ended up omitting at the urging of one of my editors) was that since Senator Biden was always interested in talking about the War Powers Resolution, I was going to say that because we were then in a period without any major hostilities, perhaps it would be a good time to discuss it. That night, as I was leaving the office, somebody said, “Hey, Edwin, did you hear that Iraq has invaded Kuwait?” So I guess my editor had a good intuition. Anyway, I took office on September 20, and several resolutions had already been passed by the UN Security Council relating to the Iraqi invasion. The second of those resolutions, Resolution 661, affirmed the right of individual and collective self-defense on the part of Kuwait.

Type
Chapter
Information
Shaping Foreign Policy in Times of Crisis
The Role of International Law and the State Department Legal Adviser
, pp. 87 - 94
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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