Just War Theory Flashcards
Who worked on the Just War Theory? And when?
The Christian philosopher and monk, Thomas Aquinas in the fourth century CE
What are the conditions of the theory?
Just Cause Lawful Authority Just Intention Last Resort Chance of Success Proportionality Legitimate Targets
Explain Just Cause
The war must be for a just cause. This includes resisting aggression, or for self-defence of fighting to remove an injustice
Provide evidence to back up Just Cause
“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)
What are the problems with Just Cause?
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
Explain Lawful Authority
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
Can Lawful Authority be declared by an incompetent government?
No
What are the problems with Lawful Authority?
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)
Explain Just Intention
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
Provide more information about Just Intention
Must avoid unnecessary destructive acts or imposing unrealistic conditions — peace and reconciliation must always be the aim
What are the problems with Just Intention?
Potentially too idealistichow can this work in theory?
When humans are at war they can do unlawful things — war does things to people
Explain Last Resort
War must be a last resort. All other peaceful ways of resolving the problem, such as negotiations, must be tried first
Give an example of a war where the Last Resort clause was put into practice
Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement in WW2
What are the problems with Last Resort?
if you do not act decisively then war can get worsedifficult to predict outcomes
Explain Chance of Success
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
What are the problems with Chance of Success?
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?
Explain Proportionality
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
Provide an example of when Proportionality was not used
Hiroshima nuclear bombings
Further explain Proportionality
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 lifethe damage to be inflicted and the costs incurred by war must be proportionate to the good expected by taking up arms
What are the problems with Proportionality?
How do you know? we cannot predict how long wars will last
How do you quantify the damage? future problems?
Explain Legitimate Targets
Only legitimate targets should be attacked. These would be military installations and other soldiers. Hospitals, homes and civilians are not to be attacked
What are the problems of Proportionality
9/10 victims are civilianspeople put military bases in schools to disguise themcivilians get mixed up as soldiersif you work within a factory making arms, are you conscious free?
