The+Justice+of+War


 * __The Justice of War__**

//Jus ad bellum//: The justice of war. Conditions that must be met under just war theory to deemed justified to resort to war.

These conditions are:
 * 1) Just Cause
 * 2) Comparitive Justice
 * 3) Legitimate Authority
 * 4) Right Intention
 * 5) Probablitiy of Success
 * 6) Last Resort

//Jus in bello//: Justice in war. Rules of engagement for example.Concerns conduct in war.

//Jus in bello// and //jus ad bellum// are logically independent. For example a country could start a just war but fight unjustly and vice versa.

//Jus Post Bellum//- Concerns the termination of the war and the justice of treaty and peace negotations.

//Militarism:// The idea that war is not an inherently bad thing, and that societies may be best served by following Military culture, or leadership. Discipline is a high ideal, and non-conformists are often punished or re-educated. Medieval Japan is an excellent example of a Militaristic society.

Augustine, Erasmus, Aquinas, and Vitoria discuss the Justice of War in their works.

Aquanis draws his ideas from the bible and concludes that whilst war is sinful it is justified on some occasions. Aquanis argues that for war to be justified it must meet three conditions. 1. War must be waged by a public authority. This is because it it the public authorities duty to look after the common good as interpreted by him in a passage from the romans that says: "he bareth not the sword in vein: for he is God's minister, an avenger to excecute wrath upon him that doth evil." 2. War/ the extent to which one wages war must be a proportionate response to the wrong doing- punishment must be deserved. 3. The integrity of the cause- to combat wrong doings- must be upheld at all times. War must be waged in attempt to create peace thus the intention of declaring war must be for the good on the common.

Erasmus also writing in the medievil period and also being influenced by the Bible, however argues that Aquanis ideas are perveting the Bible, and that war is never justified because it will always do more harm than good. "If there is anything that... ought to be avoided in every possible way... that thing is war." He argues that it is not humans nature to kill but that humans have developed an unnatural lust for killing from hunting and eating meat. Also that more harm that good will come form war. This is because when one goes to war it is not only him that is affected but also his wife, children and other people who depend on him.

Hobbes argues that before there is a common coercive power there is no just thing as "justice" or "morality" because the common coercive power makes laws. In a state of war, Hobbes argues that the primary concern of any party is survival, and a state of nature is a state of war. When transposed to an international level, this implies that when two states are at war there is no overriding ethic or underlying morality that the states should adhere to: it implies that they do everything that they can to win the battle and ensure their survival. It also means that in doing so, they not breaching any standard, but instead adhering to the "law of nature". Hobbes' theory expanded to encompass the international state system renders the concept of "justice of war" redundant because there is no such thing as justice.

[|Link] to Just war theories explanation from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Interesting article: [|Just War Theory and the US Counterterror War], by Neta Crawford