Just War Thinking: Morality and Pragmatism in the Struggle against Contemporary Threats

(Paperback)

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Just War Thinking: Morality and Pragmatism in the Struggle Against Contemporary Threats reconsiders the intersection between morality and pragmatism in foreign policy and modern warfare. Whereas recent explications of "Just War theory" neglect how twenty-first century wars differ from the old wars that Just War doctrine was originally designed for, this book argues that a political ethic of responsibility should motivate the contemporary application of military force by states in order to protect international security and human life. Just War Thinking criticizes the quasi-pacifism of most formal Just War scholarship, reconceptualizes a minimal, realistic "just war thinking" framework for exploring foreign and military policy options, and evaluates the usefulness of this approach by investigating contemporary cases such as the war on terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq, the call for assassination of political leaders, and military humanitarian intervention. Finally, the book considers new challenges to pragmatic yet moral policies: the neglect of jus post bellum (justice at war's end); the challenge of public opinion, democratic processes, and supranational institutions to policies based on just war thinking; and the erosive power of postmodernism to the normative structures guiding Western decision-makers.

Reviews

His familiarity with the body of just war literature and his unconventional approach to the question make his contribution worthy of critical engagement. Recommended. * Choice Reviews *
Eric Patterson's small and eminently readable volume can easily serve as a digestible short introduction to the history and major components of the Just War tradition. His approach is especially helpful as a result of his concern with the changing nature of conflict in the contemporary environment. -- Autumn 2008 * Parameters *
Eric Patterson succeeds in rescuing discussion about the justice of war from stale questions and arcane philosophy and brings analysis square into the most relevant debates of the agehumanitarian intervention, the war on terrorism, and justice after war's end. Ironically, he does so by returning to the very historical foundations of the just war tradition. And he does so with rhetorical force, conceptual clarity, and refreshing directness. -- Daniel Philpott, University of Notre Dame

Author Bio

Eric Patterson is assistant director of the Berkley Center for Religion and World Affairs at Georgetown University.