The Catholic presumption against war revisited

Bibliographic Data

ID4444798
AuthorsChristian Nikolaus Braun (0000-0001-5392-4547, Durham University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume34
Issue4
Pages583-602
Publication date2020-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Relations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-1178 • E-ISSN: 1741-2862
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0047117819879486
OpenAlexW2979497027
LanguageEN
Citations received6

One of the most contested arguments in contemporary just war thinking has been the question of the right starting point of analysis. On one side of the argument, one finds Catholic Church officials who argue for a 'presumption against war' as jumping-off point. On the other, one encounters critics of that position, led by James Turner Johnson, who defend a 'presumption against injustice' as the correct point of entry. Interestingly, both sides refer to St Thomas Aquinas, the key figure in the systematisation of the classical just war, as giving support to their respective position. While Johnson was vindicated as far as Aquinas's historical starting point is concerned, debate about the contemporary purchase of the presumption against war has continued until the present day. Historical just war thinkers like Johnson have criticised the Church not only for turning the logic of the just war tradition on its head by reversing the inherited hierarchy between the so-called deontological and prudential criteria, but have also questioned the empirical evidence that has put the Church on this trajectory. In this article, I explain how the debate about the presumption against war continues to be relevant by engaging with the general direction the Catholic Church has taken up until Pope Francis and by investigating the particular example of its position on drone warfare. I point out that while the presumption against war runs counter to what Aquinas wrote during his days, Thomistic virtue ethics is generally open to development. The Church may thus claim a Thomistic patrimony in advocating for a presumption against war, but, as I demonstrate, the just war thinking that results, often referred to as modern-war pacifism, struggles to address important moral issues raised by contemporary warfare

Argument (complex analysis) · Just war theory · Law and economics · Political science · Presumption · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Law · Philosophy · Theology and Philosophy of Evil · War, Ethics, and Justification

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