ABSTRACT
Christian just war thinking is a rich tradition of disciplined reflection on the use of violence, coercion and force in the resolution of conflicts. It recognizes that the use of violence is deeply problematic, and for many Christian thinkers inherently sinful, although sometimes necessary in a fallen world. In the Middle Ages, just war thinking was located squarely in a framework of Christian theological assumptions, central among which was often the conviction that violence is inherently and unavoidably sinful and evil, if sometimes in a fallen world, inevitable. Just war thinking tends to assume that the conflicts with which it is primarily concerned arise entirely or mainly out of deep-seated conflicts of interest between nations, or quasinational groups. After the First World War the post-war settlement visited a punishment believed, by the victors, to be just upon the whole defeated population.
