Is “The Just War” a Dead Tradition?

Wikimedia Commons

1

This is not a rhetorical question. It doesn’t suffice to yell out “yes!” just because statespersons and military strategists only nod to the Just War Tradition (henceforth: JWT) when they want to “justify” their resort to arms, usually with a malign, not-so-hidden agenda. This, by itself, might constitute strong evidence that the JWT is dead. Suppose the JWT’s inconsistencies and inadequacies are as conspicuous as I think. Any use of it in that case amounts to an ad hoc, self-deceptive rationalization of something wicked that one would do anyway.

While I think that’s broadly true, I still believe that writing the JWT’s obituary would be premature. This is less because of the cogency of JWT reasoning than those clear paradigm cases which get one to wonder whether, all theorizing aside, this war might be justified. Sometimes, a photograph of a massacre or a war correspondent’s chilling broadcast from Ukraine, Aleppo, Gaza, or Darfur displaying naked and unrestrained aggression might get you wondering about your principled loyalty to Christian nonviolence. In a world where unjust killing runs rampant, it might cross your mind that, in these horrific cases, at least, a violent response is called for. Or perhaps not. Maybe, as the philosopher Richard Rorty once quipped, we need fewer reflections on the part of philosophers and theologians and more photographs…