ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the people are all essentially noncombatants and that it is only the advent of war that makes some of us combatants. It develops the key notion that the best way to establish the distinction between combatants and noncombatants is in terms of the adoption of certain maxims. The chapter examines the phenomenon of surrender both to explain how soldiers can use force against one another while respecting autonomy and to show why it is morally wrong to attack noncombatants. It also argues that the purpose of the war convention is to uphold the distinction between combatants and noncombatants. The chapter shows why an attack upon noncombatants is a violation of principles of autonomy. It examines this critical issue on supreme emergency. The chapter considers whether the killing of the innocent in such circumstances follows from a principle that the innocent themselves should accept such that it would not constitute a violation of principles of autonomy.
