Just War

3 Credits

Can war be just? What is a ‘just cause’? The idea that war can and should be just holds a middle position between the refusal to impose any moral restraints on the waging of war (realism) and the rejection of all warfare as immoral (pacificism). Western just war theories gradually developed from the confluence of Greek philosophy, Roman Law, and the Judeo-Christian scriptural tradition. Just war theory asks two essential questions. Is the cause for going to war just (jus ad bellum)? And, Is the conduct of the war just (jus in bello)? This multidisciplinary course surveys just war thinking from antiquity to the First World War. It includes historical case studies so that students can develop their own concepts of jus ad bellum and jus in bello.