On Legal and Legitimate Wars in the Transforming Public Sphere: Social Contract Theory’s Confusion about War Declarations

This paper examines the discursive conditions that make war legal and legitimate. In the Post-World War II period, when countries do not declare war, the gap between legality and legitimacy has widened, and wars are often neither. While other studies of war-declaring typically focus on the relations between states, this paper focuses on relations between citizen and government. In the absence of discursive declarations of war, it is unclear whether citizens are able to consent to war-making decisions. The paper surveys communicative blockages and suggests areas in which improved communication could make war legal and legitimate.