{"id":525,"date":"2016-08-20T22:21:24","date_gmt":"2016-08-20T21:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nonewwars.co.uk\/blog\/?p=525"},"modified":"2016-08-20T22:54:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-20T21:54:00","slug":"principles-of-just-war-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nonewwars.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/08\/principles-of-just-war-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"Principles of Just-War Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lynn Roulstone at the Open University raised the questions<\/a> “What do we think to Aquinas’s Just War theory?\u00a0 Is it ever possible to have such a thing?<\/em>” and provided a link to a short explanation of the seven principles of Just-War Theory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I wasn’t particularly impressed by them and this was my response:<\/p>\n

1. Last Resort<\/span>
\nSartre, Ghandi and Jesus said a violent response need not be the final resort.\u00a0 Deciding not to use violence is also an available option.\u00a0 It was certainly the best way for your civilisation to survive an invasion by the Roman empire, the Mongol hordes or many other invading forces who purpose was to subjugate.<\/p>\n

2. Legitimate Authority<\/span>
\nWe have a representative democracy so if Tony Bliar decides to start a war despite dodgy evidence and 3 million people protesting, he is perfectly entitled.\u00a0 If Obama declares war on Mexico tomorrow, he has legal, personal, absolute authority to do so under USA law.<\/p>\n

3. Just Cause<\/span>
\nRighting a wrong done to A committed by B by killing C is as logical as bombing for peace.\u00a0 It just results in tit-for-tat feuds that need never end.<\/p>\n

4. Probability of Success<\/span>
\nIf it is wrong to fight in case you lose – and there is always the possibility of unexpectedly losing – then one should not fight.\u00a0 Conversely, if one has such overwhelming power that victory is inevitable, there must be diplomatic alternatives to using overwhelming violence.<\/p>\n

5. Right Intention<\/span>
\nA hollow argument.\u00a0 The victor is always right, after the event.\u00a0 Also, if the intention of war is to re-establish peace, then the best outcome is genocide of one’s enemies and destruction of their culture since that best guarantees peace.<\/p>\n

6. Proportionality<\/span>
\nThe minimum amount of force absolutely necessary is often the assassination of one person or one dynastic line.\u00a0 However, international conventions have long, long agreed that targeted execution of the leaders of sovereign states is against the rules.\u00a0 Killing millions of the people who happen to live in the same country is OK though.<\/p>\n

7. Civilian Casualties<\/span>
\nThe concept of total war (which is thousands of years old) means that the economy and production ability of the enemy are part of the war machine and valid targets.\u00a0 Bombing dams to flood valleys is fine.\u00a0 Armaments factories employ civilians as do the mines and refineries that serve them.\u00a0 There is no point continuously killing their soldiers if they just keep breeding and equipping more – one must raze their cities, salt their fields, sabotage their infrastructure and starve the population into defeat.\u00a0 The civilian capacity to raise armies must be destroyed.\u00a0 The alternative is to not use total war, but then you lose to someone who is.<\/p>\n

I do not see how there can be a just war.\u00a0 Expedient, yes, but just, no.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lynn Roulstone at the Open University raised the questions “What do we think to Aquinas’s Just War theory?\u00a0 Is it ever possible to have such a thing?” and provided a link to a short explanation of the seven principles of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,92,191,146,195,196,79,18],"tags":[104,95,192,27,197,198,82,116],"class_list":["post-525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bombing-for-peace","category-empires","category-history","category-illogical","category-jus-ad-bellum","category-jus-in-bello","category-social-cost","category-war","tag-bombing-for-peace","tag-empires","tag-history","tag-illogical","tag-jus-ad-bellum","tag-jus-in-bello","tag-social-cost","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nonewwars.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nonewwars.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nonewwars.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nonewwars.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nonewwars.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nonewwars.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":526,"href":"https:\/\/nonewwars.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525\/revisions\/526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nonewwars.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nonewwars.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nonewwars.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}