The influence of legalization and justness on the legitimacy of military interventions without 'clear' UN approvement

This study evaluates the debate about legitimacy of military intervention before, during and after military intervention. Lawfulness depends on a decent process of authorisation, while acceptability depends on the values and norms within a society, which are reflected – in present times – by the Just War theory. Military interventions are divided in an input, throughput and output phase. Lawful authorisation is important in every phase, as is the Just War theory. The political actors turn out to be the major actors during the input phase, emphasising the good intentions and peaceful ends. The role of development organisations turned out to be most important during the throughput and output phases. The limited role of the political actors during these phases can be explained because some of their responsibilities were – at least during the recent wars Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq – transferred to the new (interim) governments of the intervened countries rather quickly.