ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book primarily concerns with the relationship between the moral justifications of war and the consequences that follow from these justifications. It makes three main contributions to contemporary IR. First, it provides a robust critique of human rights-based conceptions of ethical responsibility and justifications of war. Second, it elucidates an alternative understanding of ethical responsibility that follows from the work of Jacques Derrida. And third, it illustrates how this alternative account of ethical responsibility helps us to understand and respond to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and its legacy. The purpose of this book is to critically reflect upon and challenge the relationship between humanitarian ideals and the justification of violence. In engaging with humanitarian justifications of war the book focuses on the just war tradition (JWT) and specifically on the work of Michael Walzer.