success of just war theory

STRENGTH: criticism of realism

• realism might allow for acts of genocide, rape, torture, and the possible use of biochemical or nuclear weapons in order to win a war.

• The Just War principles at least prevent these kinds of excesses from taking place.

STRENGTH: accountability

It allows those who declare and fight the war to be accountable to their citizens, so that they could be tried for war crimes if need be afterwards.

STRENGTH: boundaries

• Just War Theory has clear cut boundaries as to what is and is not morally acceptable, unlike Realism and Christian Realism.

• this means that it is able to protect innocent victims of warfare and the culture, traditions and laws of any defeated nations.

STRENGTH: moral integrity

• It encourages those fighting the war to think about the moral consequences of their actions.
  It places moral integrity above the pursuit of naked power.
  It maintains the central importance of the dignity of each human being.

WEAKNESS: realism

• thucydides argues that policy in wartime/ battlefield actions cannot be guided by ideals and morals

• this is bc countries act to serve their own self-interests and will therefore ruthelessly exploit any weaknesses shown by an enemy

• so the principle of going to war as a last resort might mean that the enemy is allowed too much time to get stronger

• e.g. had the invasion of iraq not taken place in 2003, saddam hussein could have gone on to develop weapons of mass destruction even if he was not already in possession of them

application of iraq: last resort

• Although fought to get rid of an evil dictator (Saddam Hussein) who was allegedly developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the head of the UN Inspection Team, Hans Blix, who was tasked with finding the weapons said that war was declared before he had a chance to complete the inspection process.

• And no WMD’s were ever found.

• So the war does not seem to have been fought as a Last Resort

WEAKNESS: lack of application/ practicality

It could be argued that there has never been a war in which the rules for a just war have been followed. For example, WW2 is thought of as being a justifiable war but civilians in the German city of Dresden were firebombed simply to terrorise them and atomic bombs were eventually dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

WEAKNESS: lack of clarity

• not clear what should happen if fighting for a just cause eventually means that unjust methods have to be used to fight for the cause e.g. the use of nuclear weapons if you are in danger of losing the war to an enemy that is undoubtedly evil who would massacre and enslave your own citizens if they won.

• It is also unclear as to whether just cause should include the possibility of a pre-emptive attack as a form of self-defence. An example of this might be Israel bombing Iranian nuclear reactors to prevent them from being used to enrich weapons grade uranium.

application of iraq: legitimate authority

• The invasion was itself was carried out by a coalition of governments (including the US and UK)

• it did not have the approval of the UN and therefore could be said to have broken the principle of Legitimate Authority in that possible respect.

application of iraq: right intention

Critics of the war claimed that it had really been fought to secure Iraqi oil wealth, which means that the principles of Just Cause and Right intention were not observed

application of iraq: just cause

• No links between Hussein’s Baathist administration and al-Qaeda were ever uncovered, which undermines the additional Just Cause for the invasion as being part of a wider war on terror

• also accusations that war was fought to secure oil wealth

application of iraq: proportionality

As Saddam Hussein had not attacked any of the countries who invaded Iraq, the principle of Proportionality was arguably not maintained

application of iraq: jus in bello + discrimination

there were many civilian casualties, so Discrimination does not seem to have taken place.

application of iraq: jus in bello + humanity

Additionally, Iraqi prisoners were found to have been subsequently mistreated and tortured by US soldiers, so that the principle of Humanity was not upheld

application of iraq: chances of success

The conflict continued for much of the next decade as an insurgency emerged to oppose the coalition forces and the post-invasion Iraqi government. US troops were officially withdrawn in 2011, so the person who predicted success was obviously wrong

overall evaluation of application of iraq

Given that the invasion was then followed by an occupation, insurgency and civil war, and eventually resulted in the rise of ISIS, events which also caused further civilian loss of life on a huge scale, the invasion of Iraq serves as an illustration – not of the failure of the theory to work in practice – but rather of what can happen when Just War maxims are not observed