nam 22 uu 4500 10.17176/20260327-163449-0 DE-Verfassungsblog cr||||| 260327s2026||||xx#|||||o|||| ||| 0|eng|| 10.17176/20260327-163449-0 doi eng 342 23 Janz, Christopher Author aut Tyranny’s Useful Idiot - The Narrative of International Law as an Obstacle to “Just Wars” Against Dictators Janz, Christopher Verfassungsblog 2026-03-27 Text txt rdacontent Computermedien c rdamedia Online-Ressource cr rdacarrier In the aftermath of the US-Israeli attack on Iran, the US and Israel attempted to portray the attack as the continuation of an ongoing conflict, self-defence, as well as a humanitarian effort. However, most international lawyers condemned the attack as “manifestly illegal”. In response, they argued that the illegality “must be weighed against the principle of reality”, “given the murderous nature of the Iranian regime”. This narrative characterises international law as tyranny’s useful idiot. In reality, it serves as a justification to abandon the law as a practice to legitimise political actions. CC BY-SA 4.0 International Law Iran Iran Israel Israel USA USA just war self-defence (DE-588)4027653-3 gnd Iran (DE-588)4027808-6 gnd Israel (DE-588)4078704-7 gnd USA Max Steinbeis Verfassungsblog gGmbH Verfassungsblog 2366-7044 https://verfassungsblog.de/tyrannys-useful-idiot/ raw object