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A preemptive war is a war that is commenced in an attempt to repel or defeat a perceived imminent offensive or invasion, or to gain a strategic advantage in an impending (allegedly unavoidable) war shortly before that attack materializes.^[1] It is a war that preemptively 'breaks the peace' before an impending attack occurs.

The term 'preemptive war' is sometimes confused with the term 'preventive war'. The difference is that a preventive war is launched to destroy the potential threat of the targeted party, when an attack by that party is not imminent or known to be planned. The U.S. Department of Defense defines a preventive war as an armed conflict "initiated in the belief that military conflict, while not imminent, is inevitable, and that to delay would involve greater risk."^[2] A preemptive war is launched in anticipation of immediate aggression by another party.^[3] Most contemporary scholarship equates preventive war with aggression, and therefore argues that it is illegitimate.^[4] The waging of a preemptive war has less stigma attached than does the waging of a preventive war.^[5]

Article 2 (4) of the UN Charter requires that states refrain from the initiation of armed conflict, that is being the first to 'break the peace' unless authorized by the UN Security Council as an enforcement action under Article 42. Some authors have claimed that when a presumed adversary first appears to be beginning confirmable preparations for a possible future attack, but has not yet actually attacked, that the attack has in fact 'already begun', however this opinion has not been upheld by the UN.^[6]^[7]

^ Wragg, David W. (1973). A Dictionary of Aviation (first ed.). Osprey. p. 215. ISBN 9780850451634.
^ Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms. 2002. p. 413.
^ Beres, Louis Rene (1991–1992), On Assassination as Anticipatory Self-Defense: The Case of Israel, vol. 20, Hofstra L. Rev., p. 321
^ Shue, Henry and Rhodin, David (2007). Preemption: Military Action and Moral Justification. Oxford University Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-19-923313-7
^ Shue and Rodin 2007, p. 118.
^ "The Implications of Preemptive and Preventive War Doctrines: a Reconsideration" (PDF). 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-02-16. Retrieved 2010-12-02. A US Army sponsored discussion of various justifications for preemptive, preventive and 'precautionary' war.
^ "Adoption of Policy of Pre-emption Could Result in Proliferation of Uniliteral, Lawless Use of Force: By Kofi Annan". 2003. Retrieved 2010-12-02. Kofi Annan discusses his unwillingness to accept proposed new changes in UN policy towards the use of preemptive force, and why.