Preemption and JustWar
Considering the Case of Iraq
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20138743 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Franklin Eric Wester (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2004 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Publication date | 2004-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The US Army War College Quarterly Parameters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0031-1723 • E-ISSN: 0031-1723 |
| Publisher | United States Army War College Press (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.55540/0031-1723.2232 |
| OpenAlex | W1580798677 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 3 |
This article demonstrates that the use of military force by the Bush Administration against the regime of Saddam Hussein does not meet the ethical criteria for "preemptive war" set forth in the classical Just War tradition. It considers ethical questions raised by the U.S.-led attack against Iraq as part of the war against global terrorism and argues that the doctrine of preemptive war as applied in the case of Iraq fails crucial ethical tests. Could Operation Iraqi Freedom and the global war on terrorism be as pivotal in the history of ethical decision making as the emergence of the nation state in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648? Do new ethics for the war on terror sever the 4th-century Augustinian roots of Just War theory and the ties to Thomas Aquinas's "Summa Theologica" 700 years later? Could the first major war of the 21st century inaugurate a revolution in ethical decision making about warfare, justifying a new set of criteria for preemption or preventive war? Answers to these questions hinge on whether or not the doctrine of preemption matures into new ethical criteria. Such criteria would build not on foundations for constraining unavoidable human violence, but stretch toward a vision of an ideal of liberty that justifies the selective killing of some to achieve a greater good of liberty for many others. This emerging ethic installs the United States as the guardian of a universal, even transcendent, cause of freedom and the ultimate arbiter in that cause. This article applies the classic categories of Just War tradition to the doctrine of preemption as advanced by the current Administration in the justification for Operation Iraqi Freedom
Political science · Preemption · Computer Science · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Law · Torture, Ethics, and Law · War, Ethics, and Justification
The War on Terror from the Perspective of Indonesia and Saudi Arabia
Preemption and the Evolution of America’s Strategic Defense
Last Resort and Preemption
The Innocuousness of State Lethality in an Age of National Security
Strategy and Disproportionality in Contemporary Conflicts
Reshaping U.S. Smart Power
Grasping neither war nor peace
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2005 - 2020 (16) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |