What Do We Want from the Just War Tradition? New Challenges of Surveillance and the Security State

The nature and scope of government surveillance have intensified debates about liberty and security in a post-9/11 world. Critics of the just war tradition argue it is not able to constructively address these new challenges. Defenders often simply re-affirm its various criteria in making retrospecti...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gregory, Eric (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage 2014
In: Studies in Christian ethics
Year: 2014, Volume: 27, Issue: 1, Pages: 50-62
Further subjects:B Domination
B Augustine
B Counterterrorism
B Surveillance
B Empire
B Ideal theory
B Just War
B Security
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Electronic
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Summary:The nature and scope of government surveillance have intensified debates about liberty and security in a post-9/11 world. Critics of the just war tradition argue it is not able to constructively address these new challenges. Defenders often simply re-affirm its various criteria in making retrospective judgments or clarifying principles. By contrast, this article argues that our political moment—marked by the arbitrary exercise of power, the prospect of permanent war, and the rapid speed of global politics—reinforces the need to frame just war thinking within a constructive account of statecraft and practical reasoning. In particular, I highlight moral (rather than simply legal) dimensions of authority and intention which reveal a fundamental question about what we want from the just war tradition in relation to democratic social criticism and the possibility of political morality.
ISSN:0953-9468
Contains:Enthalten in: Studies in Christian ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/0953946813509337