Customer Reviews

The Ethics of War and Peace: An Introduction to Legal and Moral Issues (2nd Edition)

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This books gives a concise overview of the law of armed conflict as taught and trained in many western militaries. It traces the rationale of the law of armed conflict in holistic manner under the auspices of Just War. The author gives special attention to the concepts of jus ad bellum (right to war) and jus in bellum (right in war). He goes on to give the foundation of where these ideas came from in Western thought from Plato to the Geneva Convention. He goes on to explain how these concepts apply in modern war against non-state actors and terrorists, the use of nuclear weapons as well as well an officer's role in persecuting just war and the role of the United Nations. The intended audience is military students and people involved in defense policy; particularly in the American view. If you want a more in depth study of these concepts, read the primary sources he lists or find a different book.

It would be best to skip this book and instead purchase Regan's Just War. While well intended, this volume is merely an overview of the subject and a superficial one, at that.

This is a simple, and simplistic, attempt to review the nature of war as regarded by philosophers and ethicists. It may be that it was written so that the author might offer his students, in an ancient and ignoble practice, an intellectually slim volume as the text for a course. If you need something to lead you to primary sources, this might do. If you want an original take on this subject, or even the hint of perspicacious commentary, look elsewhere.

This is a simple, and simplistic, attempt to review the nature of war as regarded by philosophers and ethicists. It may be that it was written so that the author might offer his students, in an ancient and ignoble practice, an intellectually slim volume as the text for a course. If you need something to lead you to primary sources, this might do. If you want an original take on this subject, or even the hint of perspicacious commentary, look elsewhere.