I. Welcoming Address

• Author: Rodney P. Rempt
• Position: Rear Admiral
• Pages: 1

Welcome to the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island as we undertake what should prove to be very fruitful discussions and debate about the defense of our nation and the critical operational and legal issues that confront the United States today. In particular, welcome to our College's conference on International Legal Issues in the Global War on Terrorism. It is exceedingly helpful to have scholars of international renown and practitioners charged with dealing with these particularly thorny issues come together to identify and discuss the bases for the conduct by the US and its coalition partners of military operations against terrorists and those who support them. As it is in many such cases, over the next few days participants in this conference will plow new ground and review history at the same time.

Such goals are an important purpose of the US Naval War College and it is important that you strive to do this while you are here.

Our academic environment permits us to exchange thoughts, analyze ideas and be forward leaning. From conferences such as these, policy is developed and written, and significant consequences can emerge. As we exchange ideas amongst ourselves, I encourage you to press the envelope and challenge each other with creative new thinking because frankly our world is currently engaged in a rapid paradigm shift. Current norms must be flexible and adaptive or they must be discarded as new norms press to the front as we peer into the future in an effort to vigilantly protect our citizens, our property, indeed our very way of life from cowards who call themselves terrorists.

Your presence here for these several days is extremely important. Bringing together international scholars and practitioners to examine and study the basis for how the United States and other nations partner together in this common cause of conducting military operations against terrorists and those state agencies and organizations that support them is of vital importance to the United States and to the international community at large.

As an example, a current discussion of great interest deals with Iraq. In some sense, Iraq presents a simple situation. Iraq has a very unstable ruler who is closing in on his goal of greater access to weapons of mass destruction.

While not currently a policy maker, I recognize that if the need arises to deal with Saddam Hussein militarily, we must be clear as to the international basis for the use of force...