ABSTRACT
Moral conceptions of the legitimacy of the use of force enjoy a long-standing tradition in international politics, largely because of the property of moral standards to place constraints on actors’ behavior in absence of coercive measures. Nevertheless, a vigorous debate persists as to what moral standards should govern the use of force in international politics and what kind of provisions would ensure their application in practice. Scholars of international ethics have long sought to find a resolution of this issue, but results have been rather inconclusive so far. The prevalent ethical tradition addressing the moral conditions under which the use of force can be legitimated is that of just war theory (JWT), originally articulated by Christian theologians beginning in the fifth century. JWT contends that certain uses of force are morally legitimate as long as they follow, as closely as possible, the norms subsumed by jus ad bellum (the law of going to war) and jus in bello (the law of conducting war) principles. The goal of this chapter is to examine the analytical effectiveness of the just war doctrine for drawing clear distinctions between legitimate and illegitimate uses of force. To this end, the chapter will argue that JWT ultimately fails to achieve this goal, largely because of its neglect to take into account the politics involved in the interpretation and application of moral principles. Though enjoying a reasonable level of fairness, JWT demonstrates a low level of tractability, which ultimately undermines its ability to discriminate properly between legitimate and illegitimate uses of force. This argument will be developed in three steps: The first section will describe the evolution of the concept of moral legitimacy, from both religious and secular perspectives. The second will outline the key elements of JWT and examine its relevance and contribution to international relations. The last section will examine the level of fairness and tractability of the JWT, and from that examination it will assess its capacity to legitimize the use of force from a moral standpoint.
