Just War Principles - Summary

By staff - Jul 1, 2006 - 2

Principles for Engaging in War

Just cause.

  • The cause of initiating war must be just.

Competent authority.

  • War cannot be initiated justly except by those who hold the proper authority and responsibility.

Comparative justice.

  • The moral merit on our side must clearly outweigh the moral merit on the other.

Right intention.

  • The intention of going to war must be to obtain or restore a just peace. Desires to punish or humiliate are not adequate intentions.

Last resort.

  • All non-violent alternatives must be exhausted before resorting to war.

Probability of success.

  • If the prospect of success is hopeless, war is not justified no matter how just the cause.

Proportionality of projected results.

  • The good expected must be greater than the estimation of anticipated costs.

Right spirit.

  • War should be regarded as a tragic necessity.

Principles for Conducting War

Proportionality in the use of force.

  • No action should be taken that generates more harm than good.

Discrimination.

  • A strong distinction must be maintained between combatants and non-combatants. Non-combatants must never be deliberate or primary targets of military action.

Avoidance of evil means.

  • No use of evil means (even for a just cause).

Good faith.

  • As much as possible, the enemy must be treated in good faith in order to keep open the possibility of reconciliation.

Just War Principles – PDF

Further Learning

Learn more about: Citizenship, Christian Citizenship, Church and State, Persecution, War

2 comments (post your own) feed

1 On Sep 27th, 2006, at 4:54am, Charlie McClelland wrote:

The Just War presupposes a war between states involving a command structure, government authority, and an identifiable territory.  As far as I can see, the “war on terrorismâ€? contains none of these.  Instead, it resembles Rome’s fight against the incursions of the barbarians.  To “winâ€? involves killing all the barbarians.  The only common traits of the terrorists are their ethnicity and their religion.  The American mindset recoils from such unrestrained warfare, so we must think through how we will fight terrorism without murdering the values that are intrinsic to our way of life.

2 On Mar 30th, 2007, at 9:57pm, eric wrote:

“...we must think through how we will fight terrorism without murdering the values that are intrinsic to our way of life.”

Well spoken, Charlie! Far more wisdom here than coming from Washington!

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