Just and Unjust Warriors: Marking the 35th Anniversary of Walzer’s Just and Unjust Wars

• Nardin, Terry

Abstract

For Michael Walzer, arguing about war is political rather than philosophical, a matter of persuasion rather than proof. His discussion of humanitarian intervention since the publication of Just and Unjust Wars tracks political events and debates, including the transformation of a debate focused on the right to intervene into one about situations, like those in Rwanda and Libya, in which it might be wrong not to intervene. If there is a duty to thwart atrocities, based on a responsibility to protect, one must consider on whom the duty to intervene falls, whether it goes beyond rescue to repairing the harm or preventing further violence, and whether it might also extend to protecting people from other harms, at least when these are the result of violence. In discussing these issues, Walzer deepens our understanding of humanitarian intervention by treating it both as an aspect of just war theory and as a historic practice able to reconcile the rights of states and persons in the changing circumstances of political choice.