Country United States Media type Print Subject Just war theory | Language English Originally published 1977 ISBN 465052711 | |
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Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations is a 1977 book by Michael Walzer published by Basic Books and still in print, now as part of the Basic Books Classics Series. A second edition was published in 1992, a third edition in 2000, a fourth edition in 2006, and a fifth edition in 2015. The book resulted from Walzer's reflections on the Vietnam War.
Contents
Summary
Walzer draws on medieval Just War theory to explore the reasons that can justify war jus ad bellum and the ethical limits on the conduct of war jus in bello in an attempt to work out a modern, secular theory of just war.
Scholarly reception
Just and Unjust Wars has, together with Spheres of Justice (1983) and Interpretation and Social Criticism (1987), been identified as one of Walzer's most important works by philosopher Will Kymlicka. The work is considered a standard in the philosophical literature on the ethics of warfare, with the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy calling Just and Unjust Wars "the major contemporary statement of just war theory."