ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the two possibilities, rejecting the former but arguing that utilitarians and other friends of Utilitarian War Principle (UWP) should embrace the latter principles as normative guides. The UWP states that it is morally right for a state to wage war if and only if no other course of action has greater expected well-being. Pacifism means different things to different people. For some, it involves a commitment to non-violence in all ones relationships, that is, to living a life that honors the value of peace. The pacifist anti-war principle obviously collides with utilitarianism, which conspicuously abstains from condemning war across the board. The legitimate authority criterion also implies that wars fought by a duly constituted state must have been authorized or brought about by the appropriate public figures in a legally or politically pre-designated way. Legitimate authority, right intention, and just cause are non-consequentialist principles, but utilitarians have reason to endorse them, too.
