Environmental Just Wars
Jus ad Bellum and the Natural Environment
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7157921 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tamar Meisels (0000-0003-0240-9443, Tel‐Aviv University Tel‐Aviv Israel, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 620-638 |
| Publication date | 2025-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Applied Philosophy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0264-3758 • E-ISSN: 1468-5930 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/japp.12770 |
| OpenAlex | W4403659573 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 41 |
War is bad for the environment, yet the environmental ramifications of warfare have not been widely addressed by just war theorists and revisionist philosophers of war. The law and legal scholars have paid more attention to protecting nature during armed conflict. But because the law focuses invariably on rules mitigating the conduct of hostilities rather than on objective justice of cause, environmental jus ad bellum has been explored even less extensively than environmental ethics in war. Setting out with the presumption against the use of force and its exceptions, this article considers whether environmental harm can trigger a new justification for war, at whose behest, and what might be a proportionate response to aggressive or negligent harm to nature. Force is clearly justified against military attacks. Where environmental harm is not caused by military aggression, proportionality points towards a response short of war. Full‐scale warfare will likely be counterproductive in protecting nature. This is less true if war is fought by drones destroying specific targets, or by cyber‐war, or by alternatives (or supplements) to war such as boycotts, ‘lawfare’, and ‘information/media warfare’. Responding in ways that minimize harm to nature also helps demonstrate ‘right intention
Archaeology · Environmental ethics · International law · Jus ad bellum · Political science · Use of force · Health and Conflict Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Transboundary Water Resource Management · War, Ethics, and Justification
Just and Unjust Wars
Killing in War
Territorial sovereignty and humankind's common heritage☆
Counting Animals in War
Water, Drought, Climate Change, and Conflict in Syria
Reflecting on the protection of the natural environment in times of war
Just Cause for War
Ecological Intervention
The Military Commander’s Responsibility for the Environment
On the Threshold
Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflict
Proportionality and Force in International Law
Proportionality in the Morality of War
Climate Change and Conflict
Just War Theory
The Changing Nature of the Just War Tradition
Climate change and the Syrian civil war revisited
Protecting the Natural Environment in Wartime
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |