The Ethics of War: Classic and Contemporary Readings

The Ethics of War is a much–needed anthology addressing issues both timely and age–old about the nature of war. When is recourse to arms morally justifiable? What moral constraints should apply to military conduct? How can a lasting peace be achieved? Over the past two and a half millennia a substantive body of ethical reflection has emerged in response to these and similar questions. This volume offers a collection of texts by ancient, medieval, and modern thinkers.

Never before have such seminal texts on the ethics of war been gathered together in a single volume. The Ethics of War is an indispensable resource for philosophers, students, and general readers alike.

Preface.

Acknowledgments.

Part I: Ancient and Early Christian.

1. Thucydides (ca. 460 ca. 400 BC): War and Power.

2. Plato (427­ 347 BC): Tempering War among the Greeks.

3. Aristotle (384 322 BC): Courage, Slavery, and Citizen Soldiers.

4. Roman Law of War and Peace (7th century BC 1st century AD): Ius Fetiale.

5. Cicero (106­­ 43 BC): Civic Virtue as the Foundation of Peace.

6. Early Church Fathers (2nd 4th century): Pacifism and Defense of the Innocent.

7. Augustine (354 430): Just War in the Service of Peace.

Part II: Medieval.

8. Medieval Peace Movements (975 1123): Religious Limitations on Warfare.

9. The Crusades (11th 13th century): Christian Holy War.

10. Gratian and the Decretists (12th century): War and Coercion in the Decretum.

11. John of Salisbury (ca. 1120 1180): The Challenge of Tyranny.

12. Raymond of Peñafort (ca. 1175 1275) & William of Rennes (13th century):.

The Conditions of Just War, Self–Defense and their Legal Consequences under Penitential Jurisdiction.

13. Innocent IV (ca. 1180 1254): The Kinds of Violence and the Limits of Holy War.

14. Alexander of Hales (ca. 1185 1245): Virtuous Dispositions in Warfare.

15. Hostiensis (ca. 1200 1271): A Topology of Internal and External War.

16. Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1225 1274): Just War and Sins against Peace.

17. Dante Alighieri: (1265 1321): Peace by Universal Monarchy.

18. Bartolus of Saxoferrato (ca. 1313 1357): Roman War in Christendom.

19. Christine de Pizan (ca. 1364 ca. 1431): War and Chivalry.

20. Raphaël Fulgosius (1367 1427): Just War Reduced to Public War.

Part III: Late Scholastic and Reformation.

21. Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466 1536): The Spurious Right to War .

22. Cajetan (1468–1534): War and Vindicative Justice.

23. Niccolò Machiavelli (1469 1527): War Is Just to Whom It Is Necessary.

24. Thomas More (ca. 1478–1535): Warfare in Utopia.

25. Martin Luther (1483–1546) and Jean Calvin (1509–1564): Legitimate War in Reformed Christianity.

26. The Radical Reformation: Religious Rationales for Violence and Pacifism (16th Century).

27. Francisco de Vitoria: (ca. 1492 1546): Just War in the Age of Discovery.

28. Luis de Molina (1535 1600): Distinguishing War from Punishment.

29. Francisco Suárez (1548 1617): Justice, Charity, and War.

30. Alberico Gentili (1552 1608): The Advantages of Preventive War.

31. Johannes Althusius (1557 1638): Defending the Commonwealth.

32. Hugo Grotius (1583 1645): The Theory of Just War Systematized.

Part IV: Modern.

33. Thomas Hobbes (1588 1679): Solving the Problem of Civil War.

34. Baruch Spinoza (1632 1677): The Virtue of Peace.

35. Samuel von Pufendorf (1632 1694): War in an Emerging System of States.

36. John Locke (1632 1704): The Rights of Man and the Limits of Just Warfare.

37. Christian von Wolff (1679 1754): Bilateral Rights of War.

38. Montesquieu (1689 1755): National Self–Preservation and the Balance of.

Power.

39. Jean–Jacques Rousseau (1712 1778): Supranational Government and Peace.

40. Emer de Vattel (1714 1767): War in Due Form.

41. Immanuel Kant: (1724 1804): Cosmopolitan Rights, Human Progress, and Perpetual Peace.

42. G.W.F. Hegel (1770 1831): War and the Spirit of the Nation–State.

43. Carl von Clausewitz (1780 1831): Ethics and Military Strategy.

44. Daniel Webster (1782 1852): The Caroline Incident (1837).

45. Francis Lieber (1800 1872): Devising a Military Code of Conduct.

46. John Stuart Mill (1806 1873): Foreign Intervention and National Autonomy.

47. Karl Marx (1818 1883) & Friedrich Engels (1820 1895): War as an.

Instrument of Emancipation.

Part V: 20th Century.

48. Woodrow Wilson (1856 1924): The Dream of a League of Nations.

49. Bertrand Russell (1872 1970): Pacifism and Modern War.

50. Hans Kelsen (1881 1973): Bellum Iustum in International Law.

51. Paul Ramsey (1913 1988): Nuclear Weapons and Legitimate Defense.

52. G.E.M. Anscombe (1919 2001): The Moral Recklessness of Pacifism.

53. John Rawls (1921 2002): The Moral Duties of Statesmen.

54. Michael Walzer (b. 1935): Terrorism and Ethics.

55. Thomas Nagel (b. 1937): The Logic of Hostility.

56. James Turner Johnson (b. 1938): Contemporary Just War.

57. National Conference of Catholic Bishops (1983 & 1993): A Presumption against War.

58. Kofi Annan (b. 1938): Toward a New Definition of Sovereignty.

Index

Gregory M. Reichberg is Senior Researcher at the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) where he heads the Institute s Program on Ethics, Norms, and Identities. He is editor of The Classics of Western Philosophy: A Reader s Guide (with Jorge J. E. Gracia and Bernard N. Schumacher, Blackwell 2003) and he has published numerous articles on the ethics of war and peace.

Henrik Syse is Senior Researcher associated with PRIO and the Ethics Program at the University of Oslo, and Head of Corporate Governance at Norges Bank Investment Management. He is the author of Natural Law, Religion, and Rights (2006).

Endre Begby is Fulbright Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh.

"This is a superb, comprehensive collection of the basic texts that make up the just war tradition. Some have been very difficult to get hold of and others have been translated for the first time. It will be an indispensable resource for all departments of international affairs, ethics, war studies, peace studies and many history departments." Times Higher Education, 25 May 2007

"As a collection of key readings, each prefaced by editorial comment, it can scarcely be bettered."
The Times <!––end––>

"An invaluable resource for many readers for years to come...anyone interested in the history of western thought on the subject of war will find [the volume] fascinating."
Peace News

"On balance...The Ethics of War will serve as a tremendous resource for students, teachers and writers for decades to come. We owe its editors much gratitude for their diligent compilation of a tremendous range of texts, and their careful scholarly analysis of the arguments to be found within them."
David L. Perry, United States Army War College

"This superbly edited and thoughtfully organized collection brings together all of the essential texts of the just war tradition in one single volume. An outstanding achievement!"
George R. Lucas, Jr., U.S. Naval Academy

"A unique and extremely well–done collection of essays culled from every period of Western history some of which were previously unavailable in English. This is an important anthology, one that should be read and re–read by any serious student of the perennial ethical problems of warfare."
Carl Ficarotta, US Air Force Academy

"This magnificent volume allows readers both to learn about the past and from the past. It will be of great value to historians, while those who are concerned with the burning current issues of just war will appreciate the depth of analysis of their predecessors."
Jon Elster, Collège de France

"Although this book is primarily aimed at the academic market, anyone interested in the history of western thought on the subject of war will find it fascinating"
Peace News