Resumen de Michael P. Scharf and Paul R. Williams, Shaping Foreign Policy in Times of Crisis: the Role of International Law and the State Department Legal Adviser
In an interview with BBC television on 19 March 2011, British Prime Minister David Cameron described the use of force against Libya in terms of United Nations Security Council resolution 1973 (2011) as �necessary, legal and right�. This statement once again illustrated the fact that, especially with respect to the use of force in the execution of foreign policy, justification in terms of applicable international law principles weighs heavily on the minds of statesmen. It is therefore not surprising that it is increasingly being recognized in contemporary academic discourse that international law and international politics and security are intertwined subjects and that international law provides a useful paradigm for the analysis of international relations. The momentous events of 11 September 2001, which marked the advent of asymmetric warfare, challenged the ability of especially Western democracies to deal with hitherto unknown security challenges within the established framework of international law. These developments provided fertile soil for developing a discourse on the relationship between international law and international relations and diplomacy, conducted by both academics and practitioners.
However, in American legal tradition this discourse has already been present for several decades: almost half a century ago the American Society of International Law published Legal Advisers and Foreign Affairs,1 a collection of essays by legal advisers to foreign ministries from a variety of states, and an article on the role of the Legal Adviser to the Department of State appeared in the American Journal of International Law2 in 1962. The book under review returns to this theme. The question to be explored, in the words of Harold Koh, present State Department Legal Adviser who wrote the foreword, is what role international law plays in foreign policy crises. Furthermore, the book aims at contributing to an understanding of the role of the �
