ABSTRACT
Jeff McMahan's contributions to contemporary just war theory have opened new horizons of debate amongst moral philosophers, political theorists and legal scholars. His criticisms of "traditional" just war theory, embodied most prominently in Michael Walzer's Just and Unjust Wars, have not only sparked new lines of research in military ethics, but have also changed policies and viewpoints within governments and militaries. McMahan's landmark book is that killing in war is a sustained assault on the linchpin of Walzerian just war theory, the moral equality of combatants. McMahan's legacy and enduring relevance to the just war tradition cannot be overstated, but it should also come with some very clear nuanced distinctions. In widening the lens of just war debates, McMahan has thus influenced many contemporary just war theorists, military ethicists, and legal scholars over the past 20 years. His work has engendered a lively and timely debate that does not take as unproblematic the Walzerian framework.
