Just War Theory

Question 1

Who worked on the Just War Theory? And when?

Answer 1

The Christian philosopher and monk, Thomas Aquinas in the fourth century CE

Question 2

What are the conditions of the theory?

Answer 2

Just Cause
Lawful Authority
Just Intention
Last Resort
Chance of Success
Proportionality
Legitimate Targets

Question 3

Explain Just Cause

Answer 3

The war must be for a just cause. This includes resisting aggression, or for self-defence of fighting to remove an injustice

Question 4

Provide evidence to back up Just Cause

Answer 4

“War is permissible only to confront a real and certain danger, i.e. to protect innocent life, to preserve conditions necessary for decent human existence and to secure basic human rights.” (Catholic Bishops in America, 1983)

Question 5

What are the problems with Just Cause?

Answer 5

subjective
why are we not at war more because many places don’t have basic human rights
a Just Cause could be created for the purpose of war
Jesus was a pacifist but the Roman Empire needed an army so they had to puzzle out how to legitimise battle

Question 6

Explain Lawful Authority

Answer 6

A war must be declared by a lawful authority. A war can only be declared by a government, a ruler of the UN, but never a private citizen

Question 7

Can Lawful Authority be declared by an incompetent government?

Answer 7

No

Question 8

What are the problems with Lawful Authority?

Answer 8

are individual countries, led by e.g. president/prime minister, justified with their lawful authority?
UN system difficult — 5 vetos and political alliance (what suits your country)

Question 9

Explain Just Intention

Answer 9

A war must be fought to bring about good. This means that war can be fought to restore peace, or to prevent further suffering or any other form of evil. Once that end has been achieved, fighting must stop

Question 10

Provide more information about Just Intention

Answer 10

must avoid unnecessary destructive acts or imposing unrealistic conditions — peace and reconciliation must always be the aim

Question 11

What are the problems with Just Intention?

Answer 11

potentially too idealistic

how can this work in theory? when humans are at war they can do unlawful things — war does things to people

Question 12

Explain Last Resort

Answer 12

War must be a last resort. All other peaceful ways of resolving the problem, such as negotiations, must be tried first

Question 13

Give an example of a war where the Last Resort clause was put into practice

Answer 13

Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement in WW2

Question 14

What are the problems with Last Resort?

Answer 14

if you do not act decisively then war can get worse

difficult to predict outcomes

Question 15

Explain Chance of Success

Answer 15

There must be a reasonable chance of success. This means that no country is to go to war when they stand no chance of winning. This is to prevent lives being lost unnecessarily

Question 16

What are the problems with Chance of Success?

Answer 16

can we ever predict how long and how many lives will be lost at war?
not always a matter of numbers
is it worthwhile if your chance of success is less relevant? e.g. revolution — what have you go to lose? if it continues won’t it get worse? chances get smaller?

Question 17

Explain Proportionality

Answer 17

Only necessary force must be used to achieve the aim. This means that it would be totally unjustified to use nuclear weapons against a small country over something like a boundary dispute. The clause is intended to prevent one country taking the opportunity of a war to annihilate the other

Question 18

Provide an example of when Proportionality was not used

Answer 18

Hiroshima nuclear bombings

Question 19

Further explain Proportionality

Answer 19

must be a proportionality between the injustice that led to the war and the damage done by war in terms of suffering and loss of human life
the damage to be inflicted and the costs incurred by war must be proportionate to the good expected by taking up arms

Question 20

What are the problems with Proportionality?

Answer 20

how do you know? we cannot predict how long wars will last

how do you quantify the damage? future problems?

Question 21

Explain Legitimate Targets

Answer 21

Only legitimate targets should be attacked. These would be military installations and other soldiers. Hospitals, homes and civilians are not to be attacked

Question 22

What are the problems of Proportionality

Answer 22

9/10 victims are civilians
people put military bases in schools to disguise them
civilians get mixed up as soldiers
if you work within a factory making arms, are you conscious free?