In defence of just war: Christian tradition, controversies, and cases

My aim in this article is to show that the Christian just war tradition remains very much alive, continuing to develop as it wrestles with conceptual problems and thinks its way through novel cases. I begin by explaining briefly why I choose to think in terms of the Christian tradition. Then I proce...

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Main Author: Biggar, N
Format: Journal article
Published: Feltprestkorpset 2016
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author Biggar, N
author_facet Biggar, N
author_sort Biggar, N
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description My aim in this article is to show that the Christian just war tradition remains very much alive, continuing to develop as it wrestles with conceptual problems and thinks its way through novel cases. I begin by explaining briefly why I choose to think in terms of the Christian tradition. Then I proceed to discuss four controversial issues that my recent book, In Defence of War, has raised: the conception of just war as punitive, the penultimate nature of the authority of international law, the morality of national interest, and the elasticity of the requirement of proportionality. Finally, in order to illustrate the interpretation of some of the criteria of just war, and to show how these develop upon encounter with particular circumstances, I consider three topical cases: Britain’s belligerency against Germany in 1914, the Syrian rebellion against the Assad regime in 2011, and Israel’s Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in Gaza in 2014.
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spelling oxford-uuid:27500855-2521-4848-8d2c-0887a86198e72022-03-26T12:06:14ZIn defence of just war: Christian tradition, controversies, and casesJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:27500855-2521-4848-8d2c-0887a86198e7Symplectic Elements at OxfordFeltprestkorpset2016Biggar, NMy aim in this article is to show that the Christian just war tradition remains very much alive, continuing to develop as it wrestles with conceptual problems and thinks its way through novel cases. I begin by explaining briefly why I choose to think in terms of the Christian tradition. Then I proceed to discuss four controversial issues that my recent book, In Defence of War, has raised: the conception of just war as punitive, the penultimate nature of the authority of international law, the morality of national interest, and the elasticity of the requirement of proportionality. Finally, in order to illustrate the interpretation of some of the criteria of just war, and to show how these develop upon encounter with particular circumstances, I consider three topical cases: Britain’s belligerency against Germany in 1914, the Syrian rebellion against the Assad regime in 2011, and Israel’s Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in Gaza in 2014.
spellingShingle Biggar, N
In defence of just war: Christian tradition, controversies, and cases
title In defence of just war: Christian tradition, controversies, and cases
title_full In defence of just war: Christian tradition, controversies, and cases
title_fullStr In defence of just war: Christian tradition, controversies, and cases
title_full_unstemmed In defence of just war: Christian tradition, controversies, and cases
title_short In defence of just war: Christian tradition, controversies, and cases
title_sort in defence of just war christian tradition controversies and cases
work_keys_str_mv AT biggarn indefenceofjustwarchristiantraditioncontroversiesandcases