George Weigel: The just-war tradition

George Weigel writes at National Review Online: “So the notion that just-war analysis begins with a ‘presumption against war’ (or, as some put it, with a ‘pacifist premise’) is simply wrong. The just-war way of thinking begins somewhere else: with legitimate public authority’s moral obligation to defend the common good by defending the peace composed of justice, security, and freedom. The just-war tradition is not a set of hurdles that moral philosophers, theologians, and clergy set before statesmen. It is a framework for collaborative deliberation about the basic aims of legitimate government as it engages hostile regimes and networks in the world.”

Kenneth Anderson (Volokh Conspiracy): Just War Ethics in the Obama Nobel Prize Speech

Just War, As It Was and Is
First Things, James Turner Johnson, January 2005