Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of Just War

by Cian O'Driscoll

Overview

Committing one's country to war is a grave decision. Governments often have to make tough calls, but none are quite so painful as those that involve sending soldiers into harm's way, to kill and be killed. The idea of 'just war' informs how we approach and reflect on these decisions. It signifies the belief that while war is always a wretched enterprise it may in certain circumstances, and subject to certain restrictions, be justified. Boasting a long history that is usually traced back to the sunset of the Roman Empire, it has coalesced over time into a series of principles and moral categories—e.g., just cause, last resort, proportionality, etc.—that will be familiar to anyone who has ever entered a discussion about the rights and wrongs of war. Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of Just War focuses both on how this particular tradition of thought has evolved over time and how it has informed the practice of states and the legal architecture of international society. This book examines the vexed position that the concept of victory occupies within this framework.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198832911
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/28/2020
Pages:	186
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 5.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Cian O'Driscoll, Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Glasgow

Cian O'Driscoll is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Glasgow. Cian's principal area of research is the intersection between normative IR Theory and the history of political thought, with a particular focus on the ethics of war. His work has been published in leading journals in the field. His first monograph, The Renegotiation of the Just War Tradition (Palgrave), was published in 2008. Cian was the Principal Investigator on the ESRC grant-funded research project, Moral Victories: Ethics, Exit Strategies, and the Ending of Wars. Cian has also co-edited several volumes, including Moral Victories: The Ethics of Winning Wars (Oxford University Press, 2017), Just War Thinkers (London: 2017), and Just War: Authority, Tradition, Practice (Georgetown University Press: 2013). Cian is an ISRF Fellow and the Chair of International Ethics section of the International Studies Association.

Table of Contents

Introduction1. Beneath Every History, Another History2. Making a Desert and Calling it Peace3. The Smell of Napalm in the Morning4. The Usual Definition of Just Wars5. The Right of Conquest6. Mission Accomplished7. The Disease of VictoryConclusion

Editorial Reviews

"O'Driscoll's book is informative and interesting to read. The author gives short summaries of the theories of Michael Walzer and Jeff McMahan, who are key figures in today's discussion about just war theory." — Stefan Hofmann, SJ, Sankt Georgen, Frankfurt am Main, The Heythrop Journal

"This is a book that demands attention, that should be taken off the shelf and used to inform arguments and debates about the morality of wars and, indeed, of war itself... This book is glorious precisely because it pushes us to confront...difficult questions." — Alex J. Bellamy, Contemporary Political Theory

"a thoughtful, erudite book that manages to insightfully explore both just war theory and the nature of war." — Jeffrey W. Meiser, assistant professor at the University of Portland, Strategy Bridge

From the Publisher