Can War be Just?
Jonathan Hald
Word Count 1,285
Help Received: Works Cited
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From the earliest recorded history to tomorrow’s newspaper headline there will always be
one constant that plagues our world, and that is the struggle between good and evil. According to
St. Thomas Aquinas and the Catholic Church, when this struggle escalates to the state of armed
aggression the justice of war depends on a set of explicit requirements. According to St. Thomas
Aquinas, for war to be appropriate the authority must be sovereign, the cause for going to war
should be just, and the aggressor must have rightful intentions to combat evil. These are the three
principles advocated by St. Thomas Aquinas in his writing called Summa Theologica. A modern
interpretation of the Just War Theory states that there are four more principles necessary for just
war.1 These new interpretations stem from the same school of thought as St. Thomas Aquinas
and are also accepted as principles within the Catholic Church. Together these beliefs are upheld
as the Just War Doctrine which helps guide ethical policy when considering war. Throughout
this paper I will discuss and analyze the meanings of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Just War Theory and
the newer interpretation of the Just War Doctrine. Then I will bring forth an argument against
this doctrine, and finally I will conclude with an example of when war can be just. By the end of
this paper I will have provided sufficient evidence which proves that going to war can be a just
action.
To begin this paper I will analyze the Just War Doctrine by Saint Thomas Aquinas the
new modern concept, but first it is first necessary to understand what Just War means. According
to Catholic Church, Justice is a cardinal virtue that means “to give to another what belongs to
him”2. Within the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, justice in the international political
1
“War." SUMMA THEOLOGICA: War. New Advent Encyclopedia, n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2015.
<http://www.newadvent.org/summa/3040.htm#article1>.
2
Just War Doctrine. Catholic Answers, n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2015. <http://www.catholic.com/documents/just-wardoctrine>.
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system concept includes the principle of Jus As Bellum which means that war can be justified
under the right conditions.3 These conditions are what Aristotle set to find out in 1485 when he
published the Summa Theologica. The three requirements proposed by St. Thomas Aquinas are
as follows: the authority must be sovereign, the cause for going to war should be just, and the
aggressor must have rightful intentions to combat evil. When St. Thomas Aquinas wrote this his
world was ruled by kings and nobles; however, the ideology that there is a hierarchy with
government still prevails today. In America and across the globe people place their trust in
leaders who either by election or through birthright make the decisions on how to best lead their
people. These people are the sovereign who have the sole authority to declare war. The
remaining two principles of Aquinas’ theory are that the enemy must be deserving of war and
that the advancement of good and end of evil must be sought. These two points tie into the new
modern interpretation of the Just War Doctrine which has four more points. The first point is that
the state which declares war must inflict lasting, assured, and severe damage to the enemy. This
is similar to the third point which states that the chances of success must be significant. These
two points ensure that the war is neither trivial nor impractical. The second point is that all other
means of preventing conflict must have been exhausted before going to war. The final point is
that the disorder and evil that comes from going to war cannot outweigh the evil being removed.
With these considerations for going to war we have a guide to determine if the cause is just.
In this section I will introduce an argument that scrutinizes the Just War Doctrine and
apply the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas and Christian teachings to analyze it. When
scrutinizing the tenets of the Just War Doctrine we know that they are largely influenced by the
3
Brock, Gillian, "Global Justice", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta
(ed.), <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2015/entries/justice-global/>.
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teachings of the Church and the bible which have controversial things to say on the topic of war.
The bible says “all that take the sword shall perish with the sword” and “I say to you not to resist
evil” in Matthew 5:39.4 St. Thomas Aquinas acknowledges this in his writing when he says that
war is a sin because it’s the opposite of peace. The counter to this argument is that sometimes
peace cannot be avoided. While war is always bad the purpose of the Just War Doctrine is to
acknowledge that sometimes one98 wrong must be used to stop a greater wrong. Even Jesus said
to his disciples "let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one" in the book of Luke verse
22: 36. The bible also mentions there can be “a time to kill” in Ecclesiastes 3:3.5 These points
illustrate that we know war is bad but when we follow the Just War Doctrine we can minimize
the wrong doing.
To finalize this analysis of the Just War Doctrine I will show how the school of thought
gives justice to World War II. According to Aquinas war must be declared by a sovereign nation.
World War II was fought between two sides which were both comprised legitimate governments.
The second condition is that just cause is required. The cause for war was to prevent the spread
of evil by Adolf Hitler and for invading sovereign nations. The justification for war was to end
the holocaust and protect the people facing the Nazi threat which succeeds in meeting St.
Thomas Aquinas’ requirement for having a rightful intention. The other tenets of the Just Cause
Doctrine were fulfilled as well because the Allies waged a total war campaign against Germany
to ensure that the consequences were lasting and grave. Despite a peace treaty for the First World
War Germany still pushed its territory even after several warnings by the England and France.
4
“Just War Doctrine”, Catholic Answers
5
Ibid.
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The prospect for success was there due to a coalition of nations fighting Nazi Germany, and
finally the good of liberating the oppressed outweighed the costs of war. These conditions all
prove that World War II was a justified conflict despite being a terrible war that killed over 50
million casualties.6
In conclusion, the Just War Doctrine as viewed by the Catholic Church and Saint Thomas
Aquinas provides an answer to the ethical question of war. We can conclude that when the
conditions put forward are met then a war can be just. This is because the Just War Doctrine is
intended to keep peace and minimize the evils of war. In this paper I discussed and analyzed the
Just War Doctrine, brought forth an argument against Aquinas’ writings, and showed how World
War II was an example of what a just war looks like. In conclusion, we know that war is evil and
should always be avoided but when it is simply inevitable there is a just way to combat the
threats of evil through the act of declaring war.
Works Cited
6
"Religious Studies: Just War Theory." BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2015.
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/rs/war/justwartheoryrev2.shtml>.
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Brock, Gillian, "Global Justice", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2015
Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2015/entries/justiceglobal/>.
Just War Doctrine. Catholic Answers, n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2015.
<http://www.catholic.com/documents/just-war-doctrine>.
"Religious Studies: Just War Theory." BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2015.
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/rs/war/justwartheoryrev2.shtml>.
“War." SUMMA THEOLOGICA: War. New Advent Encyclopedia, n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2015.
<http://www.newadvent.org/summa/3040.htm#article1>.