Lawfare: The Use of International Law, Diplomacy and Propaganda by the Soviet Union during the Korean War
Lawfare: The Use of International Law, Diplomacy and Propaganda by the Soviet Union during the Korean War

Summary/Abstract: The Soviet Union proves the perfect case study to demonstrate the use of propaganda as a supplement to political and military objectives. Though not noted for upholding treaties and adhering to rules, the Soviet government was expert at using law to manipulate the international legal system in its favor. This form of lawfare was used to manipulate and exploit the international legal system to supplement military and political objectives to control other states legally, politically and equally as important, through the public media of propaganda. Nowhere was this more apparent than the Korean War. As we see by the rhetoric both at home and abroad, through international political bodies and public propaganda, the Soviet Union worked exhaustively to place the face of the aggressor on the United States. By utilizing both the definition proposed for the state by earlier treaties and that proposed for the individual at Nuremberg, the Soviet Union again and again placed the terms of aggression and aggressive war onto the world stage to undermine the actions of a major opponent, the United States. Phrases such as intervention into the internal affairs of another country, action in disregard of the obligations of the United States to the UN, invasion by armed naval and air forces, and planning, preparing and carrying out hostile acts, were repeated often by the Soviet Union to clearly place the United States in violation of the definition of aggression, even if it was not a strictly legal one.

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