Just war and political judgment

The aim of this chapter is to defend the position that while the categories associated with just war thinking may help us to exercise judgment in particular cases, we should avoid just war theorizing altogether. The intended distinction here is best, if somewhat crudely, summarized by saying that whereas those who look to just war theory expect to be given answers, those who prefer to talk of just war thinking hope to discover good questions. In the first case, the expectation is that just war theory properly applied will tell us whether a particular war, or a particular action in...