'Regime change' lies at the intersection of two major trends under UN auspices. The first is the progressive universalisation of the human rights norm carried out through a large number of legal conventions and promoted, however imperfectly, through a substantial legal machinery. The second is the central and irreplaceable role of the Security Council as the core of the international law enforcement system. Except in cases of selfdefence, only the Security Council can decide whether or not it is lawful to go to war. The US victory in Iraq has come at the price of re-legitimising wars of choice as an instrument of unilateral state policy and will usher in more determined efforts by many countries to acquire weapons of mass destruction, since nothing else is capable of deterring external attack.
