"From North Korea's recent attacks on Sony to perpetual news reports of successful hackings and criminal theft, cyber conflict has emerged as a major topic of public concern. Yet even as attacks on military, civilian, and commercial targets have escalated, there is not yet a cle…
"Just war thinking and realism are commonly presumed to be in opposition. If realists are seen as war-mongering pragmatists, just war thinkers are seen as naïve at best and pacifistic at worst. Just war thought is imagined as speaking truth to power - forcing realist decision-ma…
"In eight parts, Andrew Bostom's collection depicts Islam's justification for jihad and its worldwide impact that extended over thirteen centuries of war. He reproduces quotations from the Qu'ran and the Hadith, along with Qu'ranic exegesis by the greatest classical and modern c…
The decline of the Roman Empire gave rise to two problems, which combined to form one of the most perplexing philosophical questions of late antiquity. On the one hand, Rome found itself under constant military threat as various tribes from the north and east encroached along it…
As insurgencies rage, a burning question remains: How should insurgents fight technologically superior state armies? Commentators rarely ask this question because the catchprase "we fight by the rules, but they don't" is nearly axiomatic. But truly, are all forms of guerrilla wa…
Just war or pacifism? The just war tradition has enjoyed a near monopoly within the Christian moral tradition. However, in recent decades pacifism has emerged as a serious contender within the Christian moral tradition. Both of these traditions cannot be right, but how do we cho…
"Can a soldier be held responsible for fighting in a war that is illegal or unjust? This is the question at the heart of a new debate that has the potential to profoundly change our understanding of the moral and legal status of warriors, wars, and indeed of moral agency itself.…
The term War on Terror is compared to the language of criminal justice in both theory and practice, using just war theory, semiotics, and empirical research on how terrorism is effectively defeated. The phrase War on Terror raises false public expectations that the problem of te…
Somalia is known for its anarchy and dysfunction. With the absence of government, security and rule of law, Somalia has been left to its own devices and has been consumed by violence and civil unrest. This has led to its vulnerability to religious extremism and a potential breed…
During World War II the British Royal Air Force undertook a campaign of area bombing of German cities, resulting in hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties. The debate over the ethics of this policy began at the time and has continued to the present. Area bombing clearly vi…
The last fifteen years have been a time of upheaval for Iraq: the end of the Iran-Iraq war, the Gulf War, a twelve-year sanctions regime, a repressive government, and the United States-led takeover have been sources social, political, and economic distress. This project seeks a …
The jus post bellum tenets of Just War Theory serve as a nation’s guide as the tedious task of returning to peace begins. However, one should not presume that the concepts associated with justice and order hold normative value to all human persons in societies. Time and again, p…
In the early fifteenth century, a great debate took place at the Council of Constance (1414-1418) over the morality, legality and propriety of crusades against non-Christians. This debate was not merely theoretical or abstract for it was the intellectual theater in a multi-theat…
This thesis surveys, critiques, and synthesizes recent efforts to develop and define jus post bellum criteria. More than merely a set of post-conflict tactics, post bellum guidance delineates moral obligations imposed upon, at a minimum, parties to conflict. Furthermore, jus pos…
The opacity of Iran's nuclear program has kept the Bush Administration on alert, afraid of facing the reality of a nuclear-armed Iran. In the wake of 9-11 the Bush Administration created a revised national security strategy that clearly placed nuclear proliferation as a vital th…
Power, while often ignored, permeates the Christian, Islamic and Hindu just war traditions. First, because all three rely on a stable order in which to pursue their visions of the good life, the just war traditions seek to preserve order and stability both vertically among actor…
