Just War Theory
Just War Theory.The term just war in its fullest sense refers to the broad tradition of interrelated theory and practice that defines for Western culture when the use of armed force for political purposes is justified and what limits or restraints ought to be observed in the employment of such force. Reflecting both the practical experience of war and normative thought on the place of force in statecraft, just war tradition first coalesced during the Middle Ages as a cultural consensus drawing on canon law, the dominant Augustinian theology and political theory, inherited Roman concepts of jus gentium and jus naturale, existing customs and practices of statecraft, and the code of chivalry. The roots of this tradition reach back through theology and law to classical Rome and Greece and to biblical Israel, and through chivalry to earlier Germanic conceptions of war and the soldier. The classical and biblical heritage was principally mediated to the Middle Ages...
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