Faversham Stoa

The ethics of war

In the gospels Christ teaches that we are to love our enemies. This has caused Christian theologians and philosophers a lot of serious heart-searching throughout the Christian era. For what is a Christian state to do when it finds itself embroiled in conflict? The result of all the reflections on this problem is a set of principles known as the 'Just War Theory. Interesting, it does not rest on any specifically theological premises and so can be considered from a purely secular viewpoint.

Theory attempts to reconcile three ethical principles:

1. taking human life is seriously wrong;
2. states have a duty to defend their citizens, and defend justice;
3. protecting innocent human life and defending important moral values sometimes requires willingness to use force and violence.

The theory specifies conditions for judging if it is just to go to war, and conditions for how the war should be fought.

The aim of Just War Theory is to provide a guide to the right way for states to act in potential conflict situations. It only applies to states, and not to individuals (although an individual can use the theory to help them decide whether it is morally right to take part in a particular war).

The theory is not intended to justify wars but to prevent them, by showing that going to war except in certain limited circumstances is wrong, and thus motivate states to find other ways of resolving conflicts.

The doctrine of the Just War can deceive a person into thinking that because a war is just, it's actually a good thing.

But behind contemporary war theory lies the idea that war is always bad. A just war is permissible because it's a lesser evil, but it's still an evil.

The principles of a Just War originated with classical Greek and Roman philosophers like Plato and Cicero and were added to by Christian theologians like Augustine and Thomas Aquinas.

There are two parts to the theory, both with Latin names:

1. Jus ad bellum: the conditions under which the use of military force is justified.
2. Jus in bello: how to conduct a war in an ethical manner.

A war is only a Just War if it is both justified, and carried out in the right way. Some wars fought for noble causes have been rendered unjust because of the way in which they were fought.

Reading

• Can There be a Just War – by Richard Norman (If you don't read anything else – read this)
• The Ethics of the Iraq War – by Richard D Ryder
• Just War Tradition
• Laws of Wars
• Philosophy of War – from the Internet Encyclopdia of Philosophy
• Terrorism – from Wikipedia
• War – from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• War – from Wikipedia