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Legitimate Authority and “Just War” in the Modern World
Author(s) -
Calhoun Laurie
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
peace and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1468-0130
pISSN - 0149-0508
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0130.00217
Subject(s) - proclamation , belligerent , just war theory , law , rhetorical question , interpretation (philosophy) , subject (documents) , world war ii , schema (genetic algorithms) , sociology , invocation , political science , spanish civil war , philosophy , linguistics , machine learning , politics , library science , computer science
Legitimate authority is a widely touted yet rarely analyzed concept in discourse about war. In this essay, I articulate and analyze the schema of just war theory that has dominated philosophical discourse regarding war since the early medieval period. Although the requirements for a “just war” appear to exceed the simple proclamation by a legitimate authority , in fact, all of the other requirements are subject to the interpretation of the legitimate authority . In other words, just war theory reduces, in actual practice, to the requirement of legitimate authority. A consideration of the nature of contemporary warfare further suggests that just war theory is the vestigial idiom of a world that no longer exists. What remains today of just war theory is a dangerous rhetorical weapon, deployed by the leaders of both sides in every belligerent conflict.