Revenge Wars

Bibliographic Data

ID6325445
AuthorsUri Eran (0000-0002-4261-1091, Martin Buber Society of Fellows Hebrew University of Jerusalem Jerusalem Israel, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume53
Issue4
Pages344-353
Publication date2025-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhilosophy & Public Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0048-3915 • E-ISSN: 1088-4963
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/papa.70004
OpenAlexW4413738139
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited17

In the wake of widescale deadly attacks, desire and support for military revenge are prevalent. Rather than dismissing it as due to ignorance, moral depravity or heat of the moment, I propose that support for military revenge is more charitably understood as support for a “retributive revenge war,” aimed at inflicting deserved harms on the enemy without punitive authority. Revising McMahan's conception of just cause, I argue that a retributive revenge war could in principle be just, if deserved harms could be good independently of their consequences. I then consider several reasons to think that in practice, such wars are unlikely to be just and submit that the strongest reason is that they would be disproportionate. Targeted vengeful attacks which are highly unlikely to escalate may therefore be proportionate and justified under certain retributivist assumptions, but all‐out revenge wars are highly unlikely to be proportionate and just

Political science · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence · Torture, Ethics, and Law · War, Ethics, and Justification

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