ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the just war concept of international justice. It argues that, by virtue of its classical natural law principles, the just war tradition is well placed to overcome the divide between realism and cosmopolitanism that is seen to mar discussion about international justice. The chapter examines the current polarity between realism and cosmopolitanism in the light of morality of states. The view of just war theory as a form of realism owes much to the identification of contemporary just war theory with the work of Michael Walzer. The right of self-defence is an important part of just war reasoning but it does not monopolize that reasoning in the way that it has monopolized recent thinking about war. Like realism, it is argued, that the just war theory sees war as paradigmatic. The relation between particular and universal in just war thought is understood to be one of mutual reciprocity not, as in cosmopolitan conception, one of mutual antagonism.
