Just War Theory Research Paper

Just war can be traced back to the pagan teachings, which was later refined by Christian leaders to justify their followers into going to war (Cahill, 2005). St. Augustine was identified as the first to offer his view on war and justice, viewing war as a necessary evil if peace and justice were to come and labeling it as something practical when conflict arises. Later on, St. Thomas Aquinas revised Augustine’s version and added three more conditions: the war had to be waged by the proper authority, the cause had to be just, and the intentions had to be right. All of these additions and refinements lead to the same just war theory that we are familiar with today (Baer, 2006).

The Just War Theory is a set of criteria that are used to judge whether a war is morally justifiable. It was St Augustine in the third century that formulated the Just War theory, and was formalised 10 centuries later by Thomas Aquinas. There are seven criteria by which a war can be judged to be just. Among the rules are Just Cause – there must be a very good reason for going to war, such as protecting your country from invasion. There should be a formal declaration of war by the legal government. It has to be the last resort and all other alternatives must be exhausted. There must be a reasonable chance of success and great care must be

One important theory within International Relations shows a moral aspect on how to conduct war. This theory is called Just War Theory. Just War Theory is a doctrine of military ethics from a philosophical and Catholic viewpoint. This theory consists of two parts: Jus ad bellum (the right to go to war) and Jus in bello (right conduct within war).

In all of Human history, only 8% of that time has been completely at peace. From 150 million to 1 billion people in total have been killed by war. That’s 150 million families at least who have had their loved ones ripped from their grasp. This is far too many. War is unnecessary and barbaric. In “just and unjust war” by Howard Zinn the complexities of whether or not a war can be called just or unjust are debated. Peace can be achieved. the three crucial steps toward making world peace are education, open communication, and human rights laws must be strictly enforced.

The Catholic Church has put together a series of steps to determine if a war is just or not. Many of the wars we’ve fought aren’t very just, but the most unjust war was the Spanish-American War. The war was fought between Spain and the United States in 1889. This war was unjust because America did everything they could to start a war, it wasn’t lasting, grave, or certain, and it was not lawful self-defense.

St. Augustine provided comments on morality of war from the Christian point of view (railing against the love of violence that war can engender) as did several critics in the intellectual flourishing from the 9th to 12th centuries. Just war theorists remind warriors and politicians alike that the principles of justice following war should be universalizable and morally ordered and that winning should not provide a license for imposing unduly harsh or punitive measures or that state or commercial interests should not dictate the form of new peace. “The attraction for jus post bellum thinkers is to return to the initial justice of the war”. This means that war is considered as self-defense.

According to the Just War theory, just war is separated into two domains. First is the motivation behind entering war, and second is the means used during warfare (Hu, 2). The first judgment signifies justice of war, or jus ad bellum that evaluates the terms of a just versus unjust war. The second signifies justice in war, or jus in bello, which essentially measures whether or not the ends justify the means. The relationship between jus ad bellum and jus in bello are independent of each other, meaning that even if the war passes the judgment of one area, it does not imply justification for the other

The U.S. Constitution allows the president and Congress to have big responsibilities on their military action, but there have been many debates how their war powers begin and the end has. The administration of Obama chose to make a decision in August 2013 to look for congressional authority to have a military strike in Syria. They wanted this for the use of the chemical weapons. This has caused a new debate on the need for the president to request approval. In the past, the administration's major military, participating in NATO air strikes in 2011 against Libya was informed that the congressional approval was not needed from the military because the operation for constitutional purposes was not for war. Obama's actions were in favor of

Terrorism and Communism both represent threats to American exceptionalism and United States National Security domestically and abroad. However, the machinery of both comprises different internal parts. Albeit, terrorism can be used as a technique directly or indirectly by governments to reach an end.

The concept behind the “Just War” theory is something developed in a early time but it became more developed in the Middle Ages. The criteria for determining if a war is a “Just War” or not is based on the Just war theory is the effort to decide between a justified and unjustified uses of armed forces. I feel the Just war theory is the best way to determine it military involvement is need in in certain situations. I feel like the this versus from the word of God has to say about this subject in Psalms 28:4 is, “Give to them according to their work and according to the evil of their deeds; give to them according to the work of their hands; render them their due reward” (Psalms 28:4 ESV) The significance behind this versus say give to them what they deserve based on the actions. This relates to a just war because it shows that evil deeds have been done then it justified for there to be a “just war” based their actions of evil. I feel like a example of a “Just War” that the USA needs to become more involved in the helping defend Israel. The versus in Numbers 24:9 describes this very well on what the USA should be doing for the nation of Israel “He crouched; he lay down

The Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states the terms that make war permissible. There must be an aggressor who is threatening grave and certain, there must be no way to avoid the enemies punishment, there must be a serious prospect of success, and you can not inflict more evil on your enemy than they were planning on doing to you. These rules follow what

Just war theory consist of 3 principles are Jus ad bellum, Jus in Bello, and Jus post bellum. The first theory in just war is Jus ad bellum. Jean Elshstain’s book, Just War Theory perfectly details the standards of just war (Just War Theory) . Jus ad bellum is the consideration of war being right to enter. In jus ad bellum there are sub principles that should always be taken

While we were studying the world wars, the mentality of the soldiers, how they cope, and what they go through is what I was most curious about. As the wars went on, soldiers kept fighting, what was their mentality? Why did these soldiers have the will to fight after seeing so much death? Without the soldiers, America wouldn’t be where we are today, as well as the other countries involved. What were the soldiers inspiration to keep fighting, and did anyone just stop fighting? The world wars made a big impression on the countries involved. Mass deaths were counted between both world wars, citizens and soldiers both

According to traditional just war theory, a just cause must serve peace and not simply protect an unjust status quo. War must be used as a last resort and all pacifistic approaches must be

The Just War Theory is a doctrine founded by Saint Augustine which has helped bring much discussion and debate to wars and the morality to fight in them. Wars and fights between people have gone on forever and are not perceived to stop anytime soon so it is important that some people thought about when and why they should ever fight. For many years Christians never part toke in this fighting due to teachings of the Bible and Jesus' teaching on 'turning the other cheek' and 'live by the sword, die by the sword'. Saint Augustine would be one of the first to talk about how a Christian could be a soldier and serve God at the same time. Through this thought we would receive the Just War Theory which gave a set of requirements for someone to partake