Lecture notes
Just War Theory- The Morality of War
- Module
- Perspectives on Politics
- Institution
- Queens University Belfast (QUB)
Notes pertaining to Just War; outline of core tenets
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Read Walzer- Just and Unjust Wars|Finish Notes Tuesday, 4December 2018
The Morality of War- Just War Theory
• Do states/political communities have the right to wage war?
• Can war be morally regulated?
• Jus as bellum
• Jus in bello
• Jus post bellum
• What is war?
o “An actual, widespread and deliberate armed conflict between political
communities, motivated by a sharp disagreement over governance”
o More than mere antagonism or threat
o Violently assaulting a collective enemy
o States, nations, peoples- inter- and intra- group conflict
o Von Clausewitz- “the continuation of policy by other means”
o Violently imposing solutions to disputes over territory, resources, etc…
o Armed conflict
▪ Against enemy military personnel and installations (counterforce)
▪ Against enemy civilian population (countervalue target)
▪ Against enemy means of production, infrastructure etc…
(Counterforce and countervalue)
• Types and visions of war
o State vs. states- aggression/self-defence, preventative, pre-emptive wars,
humanitarian interventions, terrorism etc…
o State vs. non-state actors- rebellions, insurgencies, guerrilla warfare,
terrorism, (inc. French Revolution) counter-insurgency etc…
o Intra-state conflict- civil wars, revolutions, terrorism etc…
o Four basic visions of/stances on the activity of war
▪ Militarism- war as good, essential to a human civilisation and
character. Warrior societies (Homeric, samurai, Rome),
crusades/jihads, fascism, political millenarianism (left and right)
▪ Political realism- war as bad, cruel etc… but a normal policy
instrument of the statesman/woman, to be used prudentially in the
national interest
▪ Anti-war pacifism- war as irredeemably evil, beyond the reach of
moral discourse, and to be avoided in all circumstances
▪ Just war theory
• The Just War Tradition
o From Cicero, Augustine etc…
o Both religious and secular in origins
o Views war as a great evil, but rejects…
▪ The political realist claim that war should not be judged according to
ordinary moral standards
▪ The anti-war pacifist claim that war is always morally wrong
o War can be subject to morality and moral judgement-within the scope of
moral discourse
o We can differentiate between just and unjust wars
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