Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T14:24:03.854Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The bloodstained spear: public reason and declarations of war

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2013

Eric Grynaviski
Eric Grynaviski*
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Political Science, the George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
*
E-mail: ericgryn@gwu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

States rarely declare war. For many international law scholars, just war theorists, and moral philosophers, the declaration of war is a moribund tradition that serves no important purpose. When declarations of war are defended, the argument is situated in the war powers debate about executive authority. In contrast, I argue that declaring war – making conditional and reasoned moral demands – continues to be an important requirement for just wars. States should declare war because states should make explicit (formal) moral demands before fighting. Declaring war is procedurally important because it ensures that a state makes a formal moral case, showing respect to innocent third parties whose interests are affected and providing targets the right to confront their accusers and hear evidence. While not a panacea, requiring declarations is a significant improvement on the ad hoc politics of wartime justification that plagues wars such as Iraq. Further, declarations, as ultimatums, are the only reasonable interpretation of the ‘last resort’ requirement in just war theory. A final section extends the argument to contemporary wars against non-state actors, showing that a politics of recognition underlying declarations of war may prove especially fruitful today.

Keywords

just war theoryethicsdeclarations of warinternational theory
Type
Original Papers
Information
International Theory , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , July 2013 , pp. 238 - 272
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barnett, Michael. 2002. Eyewitness to a Genocide. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Barry, Brian. 1995. Justice as Impartiality. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Beisner, Robert. 1975. From the Old Diplomacy to the New. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Burns, John, Cowell, Alan. 2010. “Citing 9/11, Blair Defends Legacy at Iraq Inquiry”, New York Times 29 January 2010, A4.Google Scholar
Calhoun, Laurie. 2002. “Legitimate Authority and ‘Just War’ in the Modern World.” Peace and Change 27(1):37–62.Google Scholar
Card, Claudia. 1996. The Unnatural Lottery. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Casey, Shaun. 2005. “Iraq, the Just War Ethic, and Preemptive War.” In War and Border Crossings, edited by Peter A. French and Jason A. Short, 25–44. Lanham: Roman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Checkel, Jeffrey. 2001. “Why Comply? Social Learning and European Identity Change.” International Organization 55(3):553–588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, Bin. 2006. General Principles of Law as Applied by International Courts and Tribunals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Christopher, Paul. 1994. The Ethics of War and Peace. Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Cicero. 1913. De Officiis. Translated by Miller. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Crawford, Neta. 2002. Argument and Change in World Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Crawford, Neta 2003. “Just War Theory and the U.S. Counterterror War.” Perspectives on Politics 1(1):5–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dennett, Daniel. 1984. Elbow Room. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Dolan, Chris. 2005. In War We Trust. Burlington: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Eagleton, Clyde. 1938. “The Form and Function of the Declaration of War.” American Journal of International Law 32(1):19–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elshtain, Jean Bethke. 2003. Just War Against Terror. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Fearon, James. 1994. “Domestic Political Audiences and the Escalation of International Disputes.” The American Political Science Review 88(3):577–592.Google Scholar
Fearon, James 1995. “Rationalist Explanations for War.” International Organization 49(3):379–414.Google Scholar
The Federalist Papers. 1982. New York: Bantham Books.Google Scholar
Finnemore, Martha. 2009. “Legitimacy, Hypocrisy, and the Social Structure of Unipolarity.” World Politics 61(1):58–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, JohnRavizza, Mark. 1998. Responsibility and Control. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Franck, Thomas. 1995. Fairness in International Law and Institutions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goodman, Ryan. 2006. “Humanitarian Intervention and Pretexts for War.” American Journal of International Law 100:107–141.Google Scholar
Grotius, Hugo. 1738. The Rights of War and Peace. London: W. Innys and R. Manby, J. and P. Knapton, D. Brown, T. Osborn, and E. Wicksteed.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 1990. Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action. Translated by Christian Lenhardt and Shierry Weber Nicholsen. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hallett, Brian. 1998. The Lost Art of Declaring War. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Herring, George. 2008. From Colony to Superpower. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hickey, Donald. 1989. The War of 1812. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Holliday, Ian. 2002. “When is a Cause Just?” Review of International Studies 28:557–575.Google Scholar
Hurd, Ian. 2007. After Anarchy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Iraq Survey Group. 2004. “Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq's WMD.” Accessed April 24. https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/iraq_wmd_2004/.Google Scholar
Johnson, James Turner 1986. Can Modern War Be Just? New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, James Turner 2004. The War to Oust Saddam Hussein. Oxford: Roman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Lango, John. 2005. “Preventive Wars, Just War Principles, and the United Nations.” The Journal of Ethics 9(1–2):247–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larmore, Charles. 1996. The Morals of Modernity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Latimer, Jon. 2007. 1812: War with America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
May, ErnestZelikow, Philip. 1997. The Kennedy Tapes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
May, Larry. 2005. Crimes Against Humanity: A Normative Account. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
May, Larry 2008. Aggression and Crimes Against Peace. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Maurice, Sir John Frederick. 1883. Hostilities without War. London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office.Google Scholar
Morgenthau, Hans. 2006. Politics Among Nations. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Nagel, Thomas. 1979. Mortal Questions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Neff, Stephen. 2005. War and the Law of Nations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
O'Driscoll, Cian. 2008. The Renegotiation of the Just War Tradition and the Right to War in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Orend, Brian. 1999. “Kant's Just War Theory.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 37(2):323–353.Google Scholar
Orend, Brian 2000. “Michael Walzer on Resorting to Force.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 33(3):523–548.Google Scholar
Pattison, James. 2007. “Representativeness and Humanitarian Intervention.” Journal of Social Philosophy 38(4):569–587.Google Scholar
Powell, Robert. 1985. “The Theoretical Foundations of Strategic Nuclear Deterrence.” Political Science Quarterly 100(1):75–96.Google Scholar
Ramsey, Michael. 2002. “Textualism and War Powers.” The University of Chicago Law Review 69(4):1543–1608.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1999. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, John 1997. “The Idea of Public Reason Revisited.” University of Chicago Law Review 64(3):765–807.Google Scholar
Rawls, John 2001. Law of Peoples. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rodin, David. 2002. War and Self-Defense. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schelling, Thomas. 1966. Arms and Influence. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Carl. 1996. The Concept of the Political. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Carl 2003. The Nomos of the Earth in the International Law of the Jus Publicum Europaeum. New York: Telos.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Carl 1996. Theory of the Partisan: Intermediate Commentary on the Concept of the Political. New York: Telos Press Publishing.Google Scholar
Schroeder, Emily. 2004. “The Kosovo Crisis.” Fletcher Forum of World Affairs 28(1):179–200.Google Scholar
Stagg, J.C.A. 1983. Mr. Madison's War. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Tesón, Fernando R. 1997. Humanitarian Intervention. Irvington-on-Hudson: Transnational.Google Scholar
Thompson, Alexander. 2009. Channels of Power. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Thucydides, A. 1993. History of the Peloponnesian War, translated by Richard Crawley. Everyman.Google Scholar
Treanor, William. 1997. “Fame, the Founding, and the Power to Declare War.” Cornell Law Review 82:695–722.Google Scholar
United States Catholic Bishops. 1992. “The Pastoral Letter on War and Peace.” In Just War Theory, edited by Jean Bethke Elshtain. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
van der Linden, Harry. 2007. “Just War Theory and U.S. Military Hegemony.” In Rethinking the Just War Tradition, edited by Michael W. Brough, John W. Lango and Harry van der Linden. Albany: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
de Victoria, Francisco. 1991. Political Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Voeten, Erik. 2008. “The Impartiality of International Judges: Evidence from the European Court of Human Rights.” American Political Science Review 102(4):417–433.Google Scholar
Walzer, Michael. 1977. Just and Unjust Wars. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Walzer, Michael 2004. Arguing about War. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Warner, DenisWarner, Peggy. 1974. The Tide at Sunrise. Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Watson, Alan. 1993. International Law in Archaic Rome. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Nicholas. 2000. Saving Strangers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Williams, Bernard. 1981. Moral Luck. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Williams, Michael. 2005. The Realist Tradition and the Limits of International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Woodward, Bob. 2004. Plan of Attack. London.Google Scholar
Wormuth, FrancisFirmage, Edwin. 1986. To Chain the Dog of War. Dallas: Southern Methodist University.Google Scholar
Yoo, John. 1996. “The Continuation of Politics by Other Means.” California Law Review 84(2):167–305.Google Scholar