Reports that the administration is preparing a military doctrine of pre-emptive armed intervention has intensified complaints that the United States perceives two sets of rules in the world, one for itself, and one for everybody else.

Are these pre-emptive interventions a relic of bygone imperial days?

He made it clear that he thought it was indeed possible and that his mindset mirrored - and perhaps even went beyond - President Bush's doctrine of pre-emptive intervention to head off terrorist threats.

If Danny Alexander is not hellbent on provoking a major battle, why his clumsy pre-emptive intervention?

Almost 20 years ago, George P. Shultz, as Reagan's secretary of state, gave a speech warning that America would have to make pre-emptive intervention against terrorist threats on the basis of evidence that would be less than clear.

Pre-emption Attempt Seen C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Institute for International Economics, a Washington-based research organization, characterized the central bank activity over the last two days as "pre-emptive intervention."

For instance, in writing about national security strategy, General Zinni sidesteps questions about the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive intervention, noting only that it has been "applied inconsistently and haphazardly."

The mission is something new in a time of pre-emptive interventions: a curious hybrid of humanitarian aid, nation building and invasion.

With the Bush administration, the predominent doctrines of unipolar global hegemony, pre-emptive military intervention and the invasion of Iraq to politically re-engineer the Middle East were purely neo-conservative.

Ever since the Second World War, history has been punctuated by unilateral pre-emptive interventions by the great powers.