Just War and Ordered Liberty

When is war just? What does justice require? Miller draws from the intellectual history of just war to assess contemporary warfare.

Paul D. Miller (Author)

9781108834681, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 7 January 2021

278 pages
16 x 23.5 x 2 cm, 0.54 kg

'Miller examines the trajectory of just war theory by tracing it from its Augustinian origins to a principal shift that occurred in the Westphalian period, and into the current Liberal tradition ... Highly recommended.' R. Ward, Choice

When is war just? What does justice require? If we lack a commonly-accepted understanding of justice – and thus of just war – what answers can we find in the intellectual history of just war? Miller argues that just war thinking should be understood as unfolding in three traditions: the Augustinian, the Westphalian, and the Liberal, each resting on distinct understandings of natural law, justice, and sovereignty. The central ideas of the Augustinian tradition (sovereignty as responsibility for the common good) can and should be recovered and worked into the Liberal tradition, for which human rights serves the same function. In this reconstructed Augustinian Liberal vision, the violent disruption of ordered liberty is the injury in response to which force may be used and war may be justly waged. Justice requires the vindication and restoration of ordered liberty in, through, and after warfare.

1. Thinking about war
2. The Augustinian tradition
3. The transition
4. The Westphalian tradition
5. Competing visions of a liberal tradition
6. Augustinian liberalism
7. Just war and ordered liberty
8. Case studies
9. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Public international law [LBB], International law [LB], Geopolitics [JPSL], International relations [JPS], Political science & theory [JPA], Politics & government [JP], Social & political philosophy [HPS]