ABSTRACT
Saint Augustine is generally attributed, roughly 1,600 years ago, with laying the foundations of Christian Just War thought [Cook 04] and with introducing the idea that Christianity helped humanize war by refraining from unnecessary killing [Wells 96]. Augustine (as reported via Aquinas) noted that emotion can clearly cloud judgment in warfare:
e passion for inicting harm, the cruel thirst for vengeance, an unpacic and relentless spirit, the fever of revolt, the lust of power, and suchlike things, all these are rightly condemned in war. [May et al. 05]
Fortunately, these potential failings of man need not be replicated in autonomous battleeld robots.*
From the nineteenth century on, nations have struggled to create laws of war based on the principles of Just War eory [Wells 96, Walzer 77]. ese laws speak to both Jus in Bello, which applies limitations to the conduct of warfare, and Jus ad Bellum, which restricts the conditions required prior to entering into war, where both form a major part of the logical underpinnings of the Just War tradition.
