Description:
In no uncertain way have the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent attacks in<br />Madrid and London, the War on Terror depicted by Afghanistan and the 2003<br />invasion of Iraq, the subsequent insurgency in Iraq, and the 2006 war in the Middle<br />East moved matters of ethics and justice in war back to centre stage. How justifiable<br />are the actions by the USA, Israel, Hezbollah and al Qaeda to go to war? If justified,<br />how ethical are their actions in the execution of their version of warfare against their<br />opponents? Subjective and nationalistic or ideological opinions even further<br />complicate matters. In addition, the interstate profile of war collapsed into an<br />intrastate phenomenon with a humanitarian crisis profile where the suffering of<br />innocent victims, rather than soldiers, personifies the violence and destruction. If<br />ever the boundaries of war needed to be reinstated and the conduct of war redirected<br />by justice and ethics, the early 21st century presents a case in point.<br />The Ethics of War: Classic and Contemporary Readings brings to the fore<br />an extensive array of fundamental Western thoughts and scripts on two primary<br />domains of war: firstly, the righteousness of going to war against an opponent and<br />secondly, the morality or justification of the ways and means employed during war.<br />To these ends this publication by Reichberg, Syse and Begby (eds.) on the ethics of<br />war follows a chronological-thematic line that depicts important contributors and<br />sections of the original (translated) scripts from the Western debate.