Framing the Use of Force: An International Rule of Law in Media Reporting

This monograph asks whether a ‘public legitimacy’ of international law regulations has taken hold in newspaper communication of Western countries yet and, if so, whether these rules also generate a shared sense of legitimacy across these countries. The book answers these questions by presenting results of a three-year joint research project that compared European and US media framing of mili-tary interventions in the post-Cold War years (1990-2005). The overarching finding is that an ‘interna-tional rule of law’ has emerged as a shared ‘media script’ in European and US mass public debates. Throughout post-Cold War years, legal standards frame important public debates about international affairs in Western countries.