The prohibition of the use of force is the most crucial cultural achievement of humankind of the past century. In fact, transforming war from a glorious pursuit, bestowing honour on the heroic fighters and nations participating in it, into a shamefully destructive activity took thousands of years of human history.
It was the horror and futility of placing human lives by the tens of thousands in the face of mechanised destruction which led to the conviction that World War I was meant to be the war to end all wars. The League of Nations Covenant was augmented with the Kellogg–Briand Pact which finally outlawed war as a means of national politics in 1928.
World War II, this time also and mainly affecting millions of civilian victims, showed that belief in peace and the international rule of law is not enough. The United
