Rethinking the Just War Tradition

Contributors seek to promote reasoned debate about emerging security threats and potential military responses.

The just war tradition is an evolving body of tenets for determining when resorting to war is just and how war may be justly executed. Rethinking the Just War Tradition provides a timely exploration in light of new security threats that have emerged since the end of the Cold War, including ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, threats of terror attacks, and genocidal conflicts within states. The contributors are philosophers, political scientists, a U.S. Army officer, and a senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information. They scrutinize some familiar themes in just war theory from fresh and original angles, and also explore altogether new territory. The diverse topics considered include war and the environment, justice in the ending of war, U.S. military hegemony, a general theory of just armed-conflict principles, supreme emergencies, the distinction between combatants and noncombatants, child soldiers, the moral equality of all soldiers, targeted assassination, preventive war, right authority, and armed humanitarian intervention. Clearly written and free of jargon, this book illustrates how the just war tradition can be rethought and applied today.

Michael W. Brough is a major in the United States Army. John W. Lango is Professor of Philosophy at Hunter College, the City University of New York and the author of Whitehead's Ontology, also published by SUNY Press. Harry van der Linden is Professor of Philosophy at Butler University and the author of Kantian Ethics and Socialism.