The Irony of Technological Warfare

Reinhold Niebuhr's Critique of Just War, Secular Rationalism, and Technological Progressivism in Military Weapons

Bibliographic Data

ID3442792
AuthorsLuke M Pérez (0000-0003-0384-1246, Arizona State University, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume15
Issue9
Pages1080
Publication date2024-09-05
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel15091080
OpenAlexW4402270281
LanguageEN
References cited14

Reinhold Niebuhr stands alone among many 20th century theorists of religion and politics for at once rejecting both the natural law tradition of just war, as well as the secular-rationalist tradition of his progressive contemporaries. Nowhere is his dual criticism more evident than in his critical stance on technology in war. For Niebuhr, technological advancements were not only inevitable, but sometimes necessary to develop in the face of advances from nefarious actors in world affairs. But using technologically advanced weapons risked destroying the moral authority of a nation by engaging in utilitarian calculus. Religious and military ethicists concerned with the integration of technological advancement in contemporary war would do well to consider Niebuhr's thought and how it might be developed further in order to address the new concerns raised not only by modern tools such as drones, hypersonic weapons, and AI, but also by whatever yet to be developed technologies remain past the temporal horizons

Chemical warfare · Irony · Political science · Politics · Progressivism · Rationalism · Theology · European and Russian Geopolitical Military Strategies · Law · Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations · Philosophy · War, Ethics, and Justification

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