The Shortcomings of Just War Theories and the Legitimacy of Just Peace

In theory, the just war tradition claims to provide an appropriate standard for distinguishing legitimate military intervention from illegitimate aggression, which reduces the incidence of state and international violence. In practice, however, the concept of just war helps to morally embellish military action and obscure the political interests behind it. The article provides both a moral and political critique of just war theories, without in turn advocating a pacifist ostracism of war or denying the need for a normative justification of wars in terms of political realism. The argument is not that war cannot be justified in individual cases, but rather that the attempt to legitimise war as a general instrument of law and justice fails both in moral philosophy and political theory. As a last resort, war requires a theory of just peace as a supplement in order to present a coherent conception of the justification of war and of peace.