Abstract
This chapter is a retrospective of Michael Walzer’s Just and Unjust Wars (JUJW), as viewed from a distance of forty years. It considers the impact of JUJW at the time, and sets it in the context of contemporaneous events, both in the world and in philosophy: the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the 1977 Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions, the turn of U.S. foreign policy toward human rights, and the ascendancy of rights discourse in English-language philosophy. The essay explores the originality of JUJW both in substance and in style, and contrasts its philosophical method, embedded in history and essentially casuistic, with the dominant style of contemporary analytic just war theory. The chapter examines two aspects of the human rights doctrine Walzer develops in JUJW: its dependence on collective rights, and its connection with a broader humanism. The chapter concludes by discussing the threat contemporary populist nationalism poses to the human rights tradition that JUJW exemplifies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Ben Natan, Smadar. “Revise Your Syllabi: Israeli Supreme Court Upholds Authorization for Torture and Ill-Treatment.” Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies 10, no. 1 (June 2019): 41–57.
Blum, Gabriella. “The Individualization of War: From War to Policing in the Regulation of Armed Conflicts.” In Law and War, edited by Austin Sarat, Lawrence Douglas, and Martha Merrill Umphrey, 48–83. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013.
Chachko, Elena. “‘Pressure Techniques’ and Oversight of Shin Bet Interrogations: Abu Gosh v. Attorney-General.” Lawfare, December 22, 2017. https://www.lawfareblog.com/pressure-techniques-and-oversight-shin-bet-interrogations-abu-gosh-v-attorney-general.
Donagan, Alan. The Theory of Morality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977.
Dworkin, Ronald. Taking Rights Seriously. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977.
Fried, Charles. Right and Wrong. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978.
Johnson, Jenna. “Donald Trump on Waterboarding: ‘If It Doesn’t Work, They Deserve It Anyway’.” Washington Post, November 23, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/11/23/donald-trump-on-waterboarding-if-it-doesnt-work-they-deserve-it-anyway/?utm_term=.344cae181ab2.
Luban, David. “Just War and Human Rights.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 9, no. 2 (1980): 161–80.
———. “The Romance of the Nation-State.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 9, no. 4 (1980): 392–97.
———. “Preventive War.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 32, no. 3 (2004): 207–48.
Margalit, Avishai. The Ethics of Memory. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004.
Morgenbesser, Sidney. “Scientific Explanation.” In International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, edited by David Sills, vol. 14. New York: Macmillan, 1968.
Nozick, Robert. Anarchy, State, and Utopia. New York: Basic Books, 1974.
Parsons, Graham. “The Incoherence of Walzer’s Just War Theory.” Social Theory and Practice 38, no. 4 (October 2012): 663–88.
Pfaff, Tony. Development and Reform of the Iraqi Police Forces. Carlisle: Army War College Press, 2008. https://ssi.armywarcollege.edu/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=840.
“Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I).” June 8, 1977. The United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.34_AP-I-EN.pdf.
Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971.
Shany, Yuval. “Back to the ‘Ticking Bomb’ Doctrine.” Lawfare, December 27, 2017. https://www.lawfareblog.com/back-ticking-bomb-doctrine.
Vattel, Emer de. The Law of Nations. Edited by Béla Kapossy & Richard Whatmore. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2008.
Walzer, Michael. Obligations: Essays on Disobedience, War, and Citizenship. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970.
———. Just and Unjust Wars. 1st ed. New York: Basic Books, 1977.
———. Just and Unjust Wars. 3rd ed. New York: Basic Books, 2000.
———. Just and Unjust Wars. 5th ed. New York: Basic Books, 2015.
———. “Response to McMahan’s Paper.” Philosophia 34, no. 1 (January 2006): 43–45.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Luban, D. (2020). Prefaces and Postscripts: Walzer’s Just and Unjust Wars Today. In: Parsons, G., Wilson, M. (eds) Walzer and War. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41657-7_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41657-7_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-41656-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-41657-7
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)