Hugo Castignani

Most modern historians have tended to explain the formation of the Roman Empire with the notion of 'defensive imperialism', a thesis that has remained unchallenged until the last quarter of the twentieth century but was also used by the Romans themselves to justify the formation of their empire. Moreover, the concept of defensive imperialism returns periodically in all the authors who have devoted themselves to the question of just war, most notably in the speeches of politicians and scholars justifying preemptive war. This article thus explores the ways in which this concept can cast a new light on the rules of formation of the discourse of just war - the central element in the mechanism of justification of war - in its double meaning of discourse structuration and of regulation of state practices, transcending its original function as an explanatory cause of the Roman Empire. Therefore, our purpose is first to show how this concept operates on two different levels of discourse, one descriptive or historical (as a figure of state formation through territorial expansion) and the other prescriptive (as the horizon in which preventive war is justified), and finally to identify its uses by several theoretical discourses taken from different historical periods, to see how we can integrate the concept of defensive imperialism into the history and theory of just war.

"El éxito de Maquiavelo se manifiesta de forma clara en su virulenta influencia en el pensamiento político español de la segunda mitad del siglo XVI y primera mitad del siglo XVII. No es nada sorprendente que en aquellas centurias fuese leído y muy conocido en la Península, pues la política española estaba muy vinculada a Italia. Asimismo, la influencia del maquiavelismo llega hasta la actualidad y cubre prácticamente todo el mundo latinoamericano. Este volumen, por primera vez, ofrece un panorama más amplio de la influencia de la teoría política del florentino tanto en España como en América. Los capítulos de este volumen han sido elaborados por especialistas académicos de uno y otro lado del mundo hispano. En el fondo, lo que este libro alienta es la idea de que cualquier comprensión teórica en español en la actualidad debe pasar por una reflexión en sentido global euroamericano."--P. [4] of cover.