Just And Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations [4 ed.] 0465037070, 9780465037070

Table of contents :
Copyright
CONTENTS
Preface to the 4th Edition
Preface (1977)
Acknowledgments
Part 1 The Moral Reality of War
1 Against "Realism"
The Realist Argument
The Melian Dialogue
Strategy and Morality
Historical Relativism
Three Accounts of Agincourt
2 The Crime of War
The Logic of War
The Argument of Karl von Clausewitz
The Limit of Consent
The Tyranny of War
General Shennan and the Burning of Atlanta
3 The Rules of War
The Moral Equality of Soldiers
The Case of Hitler's Genercds
Two Sorts of Rules
The War Convention
The Example of Surrender
Part 2 The Theory of Aggression
4 Law and Order in International Society
Aggression
The Rights of Political Communities
The Case of Alsace-Lorraine
The Legalist Paradigm
Unavoidable Categories
Karl Marx and the Franco-Prussian War
The Argument for Appeasement
Czechoslovakia and the Munich Principle
Finland
5 Anticipations
Preventive War and the Balance of Power
The War of the Spanish Succession
Pre-emptive Strikes
The Six Day War
6 Interventions
Self-Detennination and Self-Help: The Argument of John Stuart Mill
Secession: The Hungarian Revolution
Civil War
The American WaT in Vietnam
Humanitarian Intervention
Cuba, 1898, and Bangladesh, 1971
7 War's Ends, and the Importance of Winning
Unconditional Surrender: Allied Policy in World Wdr II
Justice in Settlements
The Korean War
Part 3 The War Convention
8 War's Means, and the Importance of Fighting Well
Utility and Proportionality: The Argument of Henry Sidgwick
Human Rights: The Rape of the Italian Women
9 Noncombatant Immunity and Military Necessity
The Status of Individuals
Naked Soldiers
The Nature of Necessity (1)
Submarine Warfare: The Laconia Affair
Double Effect
Bombardment in Korea
The Bombing of Occupied France and the Vemork Raid
10 War Against Civilians: Sieges and Blockades
Coercion and Responsibility: The Siege of Jerusalem 72 A.D.
The Right to Leave: The Siege of Leningrad
Taking Aim and the Doctrine of Double Effect
The British Blockade of Germany
11 Guerrilla War
Resistance to Military Occupation: A Partisan Attack
The Rights of Guerrilla Fighters
The Rights of Civilian Supporters
The American "Rules of Engagement" in Vietnam
12 Terrorism
The Political Code
The Russian Populists, the IRA, and the Stern Gang
The Vietcong Assassination Campaign
Violence and Liberation: Jean-Paul Sarire and the Battle of Algiers
13 Reprisals
Deterrence Without Rebibution
The FFI Prisoners at Annecy
The Problem of Peacetime Reprisals
The Attack on Khibye and the Beirut Raid
Part 4 Dilemmas of War
14 Winning and Fighting Well
"Asinine Ethics": Chairman Mao and the Battle of the River Hung
The Sliding Scale and the Argument from Extremity
15 Aggression and Neutrality
The Right to Be Neutral
The Nature of Necessity (2)
The Rape of Belgium
The Sliding Scale: Winston Churchill and Norwegian Neutrality
16 Supreme Emergency
The Nature of Necessity (3)
Overriding the Rules of War: The Decision to Bomb German Cities
The Limits of Calculation: Hiroshima
17 Nuclear Deterrence
The Problem of Immoral Threats
Limited Nuclear War
The Argument of Paul Ramsey
Part 5 The Question of Responsibility
18 The Crime of Aggression: Political Leaders and Citizens
The World of Officials
Nuremberg: "The Ministries Case"
Democratic Responsibilities
The American People and the War in Vietnam
19 War Crimes: Soldiers and Their Officers
In the Heat of Battle: Two Accounts of Killing Prisoners
Superior Orders: The My Lai Massacre
Command Responsibility
General Bradley and the Bombing of St. Lô
The Case of General Yamashita
The Nature of Necessity (4)
The Dishonoring of Arthur Harris
Conclusion
Afterword: Nonviolence and the Theory of War
NOTES
Preface
1 Against "Realism"
2 The Crime of War
3 The Rules of War
4 Law and Order in International Society
5 Anticipations
6 Interventions
7 War's Ends, and the Importance of Winning
8 War's Means, and the Importance of Fighting Well
9 Noncombatant Immunity and Military Necessity
10 War Against Civilians : Sieges and Blockades
11 Guerrilla War
12 Terrorism
13 Reprisals
14 Winning and Fighting Well
15 Aggression and Neutrality
16 Supreme Emergency
17 Nuclear Deterrence
18 The Crime of Aggression: Political Leaders and Citizens
19 War Crimes: Soldiers and Their Officers
Afterword: Nonviolence and the Theory of War
INDEX

Citation preview

JUST AND UNJUST WARS A MORAL ARGU'MENT WITH HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS FOURTH EDITION

Michael Walzer

B IlOOKS

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

New York

Copyright © 1977 by Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group Preface to the fourth edition copyright © 2006 by Basic Books All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016-8810. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Walzer, Michael. Just and unjust wars. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. War.

I. Title.

U21.2W345

355.02

77-75252

Fourth Edition: ISBN-13: 978-0-465-03707-0; ISBN-lO: 0-465-03707-0 DESIGNED BY VINCENT TORRE

EBC 06 07 08

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Aux martyrs de I'Holocauste Aux revolt6 des Ghettos Aux partisans de fon�ts Aux insurges des camps Aux combattants de la resistance Aux soldats des forces alliees Aux sauveteurs de freres en peril Aux vaillants de l'immigration clandestine A I'eternite Inscription at Yad Va-shem Memorial, Jerusalem

CONT ENTS

Preface to the Fourth Edition Preface

ix

xix

Acknowledgments

xxvii

PART ONE THE MORAL REALITY OF WAR

1

Against "Realism"

3

The Realist Argument ... The Melian Dialogue Strategy and Morality 13 Historical Relativism

2

16 Three Accounts of Agincourt

The Crime of War

2.1

The Logic of War

2.1 The Argument of Karl yon Clausewit%

The Limit of Consent

3

15

The Tyranny of War 19 General Sherman dnd the Burning of Atltmtd The Rules of War 34 The Moral Equality of Soldiers

34 The CtJSe of Hitler's Generals Two Sorts of Rules .p The War Convention 44 The EXdmple of Surrenchr

PART TWO THE THEORY OF AGGRESSION ...

Law and Order in International Society Aggression

51

51

The Rights of Political Communities The CtJSe of AlSdce-Lorrdine The Legalist Paradigm

53

58 v

CoNTENTS Unavoidable Categories 63 Kml Marx and the Franco-Prussi4n War The Argument for Appeasement

5

67 CuchoBlovakia and the Munich Principle Finland

Anticipations

74

Preventive War and the Balance of Power The War of the Spanish Succession

76

Pre�mptive Strikes

6

80 The Six Day War

Interventions

86

Self-Determination and Self-Help 87 The Argument of John Stuart Mill Secession

91 The Hungarian Revolution Civil War ¢ The American Wadn Vietnam Humanitarian Intervention 101 Cuba, 18I< But neither can complain of the unofficial help the other receives. This is a help that cannot be helped; it derives from the very existence of the neutral state, its geography, economy, language, religion, and so on, and could only be interdicted by the most rigorous coercion of its citizens. But the neutral state is not required to coerce its own citizens. So long as it takes no positive action to help one side or the other, it has fulfilled its duty not to get involved, and then it is automatically entitled to the full enjoyment of its right not to get involved. The moral basis of the right is not entirely clear, however, in large part because its domestic analogue is so unappealing. In both political and moral life, the "neuter" is not a person one instinc­ tively likes. Perhaps he has a right to avoid if he can the quarrels of his neighbors, but what about their troubles? We have to ask again: can he stand and watch a neighbor being assaulted on the street? Might not the neighbor say at such a time, "You're either for me or against me"? As a revolutionary slogan, that sentence suggests, perhaps, an unwarranted pressure and a threat of retal­ iations to come. But in the case at hand, its message is simpler and less objectionable. Surely a strict neutrality here, a refusal to dis­ criminate in any way in favor of the victim, would be disquieting and strange. Neighbors are not mere spectators, studying one an­ other's misfortunes from some great distance. The social life they • Neutral states have sometimes sought a more perfect · neutrality by embargoing all trade with belligerent powers. But this does not seem a plausible course. For if the normal balance of trade favors one belligerent, a total embargo is likely to favor the other. There is no zero point; the stiracy and Aareaion: O,nnion and Jud,.".mt, p. 140. 1 8. Doenitz, Memoirs, p. 259. 19. Old Soldier. Never Die (New York, 1966 ) , p. 198. 20. Kenneth Dougherty, Gmerlll EthicB: An Introduction to the Billie PrinciIJIu of the Moral Life Accordilll to St. ThorrulS Aquinu (Peekskill, N.Y., 1959 ) , p. 64. 2 1 . Dougherty, pp. 65-66 ; cf. John C. Ford, S. J. ''The Morality of Obliteration Bombin&," in War and Morlllity, ed. Richard Wasserstrom (Belmont, California, 1970 ) . I cannot make any effort here to review the philisophical controversies over double effect. Dougherty provides a (very simple ) tcxt book description, Ford a careful (and courageous) application.

22. For a philosophical version of the argument that it cannot make I difference whether the killing of innocent people is direct or indirect, see Jonathan Bennett, "Whatever the Consequences," Ethics, ed. Judith Jarvis Thomson and Gerald Dworkin (New York, 1968 ) . 2 3 . Rceinald Thompson, Cry Korea ( London, 195 1 ) , pp. 54, 142-4)· 24. I have been helped in thinkina about these questions by Charles Fried's dis· cussion of "Imposina Risks on Others," An Anatomy of VlIlues: Problerm of Per· IOnal and SocidI Choice ( Cambridge, Mass., 1970 ) , ch. XI .

2 S . Quoted from the published tcxt o f Marcel Ophuls' documentary film, The Sor-ro", and the Pity (New York, 1972 ) , p. 1 ) 1 . 26. Thomas Gallagher, Assault in Norway (New York, 197 5 ) , pp. lor-20, so.

10

War Against Civilians : Sieges and Blockades

!. The Works of JoseIJhu., trans. Tho. Lodge (London 1620 ) : The WelTS of the lewr, Bk. VI, ch. XIV, p. 72 1 . 1 . See, for example Elena Skrjabina's remarkable memoir, Siege and Survival: The Odyaey of a Leningrader (Carbonville, III., 1971 ) . ) . Charles Chaney Hyde, International Law ( 2nd rev. cd., Boston, 1945 ) , III,

1 801 . 4 . The Works, p. 7 2 2 . S. M. H. Keen, The Lawr o f W ar i n the Lat e Middle Ag es (London, 196 5 ) , p . 1 28 for a n account o f aristocratic obligations in such cases.

3+4

Notes 6. The Art of Wdr. trans. Ellis Fameworth. rev. with aD intro. by Neal Wood (Indianapolis. 196 5 ) . p. '9} . 7. Spaight's discussion is the best: Wdr Ri4/ht•• pp. 1741f. 8. The Worb. p. 718. 9. 1 shall follow the account o f Leon Goure. The Sie,e o f Leni""," (Stan' ford. 1962 ) . 10. Goure. p . 1 4 1; TriDlI of WdJ" CrimiRdls Mfare the Nuremberi MilitdTY Triburuds ( Washinilion. D.C .• 1950 ) . XI. 563. 1 1 . The citation is from Hyde. International Law. III. 1802-03. 1 2 . Spaight. pp. 174ft. ' } . Spaight. pp. 177-78. '4. Hall. Internatioru21 l.dw. p. 398. 1 5· The Cod. of Mdimonides : Bool! Fourteen : The Bool! of Judi... trans. Abra­ ham M. Hershman (New Haven. 1949 ) . p. 2 2 2; Grotius. Law of WdJ" dnd PetICC. Bk. 111. ch. XI. section xiv. pp. 739-40. 16. See Skrjabina. Sie,e dnd Survi....dl. "Leningrad." 17. Deuteronomy 10 : 10. , 8. Hobbu' Thucydides. pp. 1 13-14 ( 1 : 19-10 ) ; Wdr Commentdrie. of Cd_. trans. Rex Warner (New York. 1960 ) . pp. 70. 96 (Gdllic W... 3 : 3. 5 : 1 ) . 19. A. C . Bell. A History of the Blocl!ade of GermGny (London. 19)7 ) . pp.

1 1 }-14· 20. Spai,ht. p. 1 3 8. 1 1 . Hall. InterlUJtional Law. P. 656. 21. B . H . Liddell Hart. The ReGI WIlT: 1 9 1 4- 1 9 1 8. (Boston. 1964 ) . p. 473. 13. The studies were carried out by German statisticians. but the results are

accepted by Bell. He is a little reluctant. however. to regard these results as a sign of the "success" of the British blockade: _ p. 673. 14· Bell. p. 1 1 7. Cf. the same argument made by a French historian. Louis Guichard. The NtlVdl Blocl!dde : 1 9 1 4-1 9 1 8. trans. Christopher R. Turner (New York. '930 ) . p. ]04.

11

Guerrilla War

1. The Sorrow dnd the Pity. pp. 1 1 3-'4.

1.

For a useful survey of the legal situatioD. see Gerhard ....on Glahn. The Dc­ cu�tion of Enemy Territory (Minneapolis. 1957 ) . }. See. for example. W. F. Ford. "Resistance Movements and International Law." 7-8 Interndtional Review of the R.d CrOll ( 1 967-68) and G. I. A. D. Draper, "The Status of Combatants and the Question of Guerrilla War." 4 S Britilh Y8dJ"bool! o f Internationdl l.dw ( 1 971 ) . 4. Quoted in Draper, p. 188. .•

5. Quoted in Douglas Pike. Viet Cons (Cambridge. Mass 1968 ) , p. 141. 6. Mao Tse·tung. Selected Militdry WritinllB (Pekin,. 1966 ) . p. 343. 7. Dickey Chapelle. "How Castro Won." in The Guerrill.!-And How to Fi4/ht Him: Selections from the Mdrine Co,p, Gdutte. ed. T. N. Greene (New York. 196 5 ) . p. 1 1 } . 8. Draper, p . 103 .

9· See Michael Calvert. Chinditr: Lons Rani. PenetrGfion (New York. 1973 ) . 10. Draper. pp. 101-04. 1 1 . GuerTillll PllTti., Considered With Reference to the lAwI dnd UltI/la of WdT (New York. 1 861 ) . Lieber wrote this pamphlet at the request of General Halleck. 1 1 . Jeffrey Race. WtJr Come. to Lons An ( Berkeley. 1971 ) . pp. 190-97.

345

Notes 1 3 . See The Guerrill4-And How to Fisht Him; John McCuen, The Art of Counter·Revo/utio7UIry War ( London, 1966 ) ; Frank Kitson, Low Intensity O/JeT4' tions: Subversion, Insurgency, cmd P/1IJcekee"ing ( Harrisburg, 1971 ) . 1 4. Seven Pillars of Wisdom (New York, 1936 ) , Bk.

III,

ch.

n , p . 196.

1 5. For a graphic description of soldiers going beyond these limits, see Victor Kolpacolf's novel of the Vietnam war, The Prisoners of 1967 ) . 16. Race, p.

Qruti

Dong (New York,

2B.

1 7 . Jonathan Schell, The Military HtIlf (New York, 1968 ) , pp. 1411. 18. For an account of forcible deportation, see Jonathan Schell, The VilltJge of Ben Sue ( New York, 1967 ) . 19. The Other HtIlt, p. 1 5 1 . 20. Orville and Jonathan Schell, letter to The New Yorlr Times, Nov. 26, 1969; quoted in Noam Chomsky, At War With Asia ( New York, 1970 ) . pp. 292-le, of Interruztiondi Llw, 2nd ed., rev. Robert W. Tucker (New York, 1967 ) , p. 87.

14

Winning and Fighting Well

1 . The Chinese Clauics, trans. and ed. James Legge, with The Tso Chuen (Oxford, 1 893 ) , p. 183. 1 . Military Writin,s, p. 240.

vol. V: The Ch'un T,'ew

347

Notes 3. Quoted in Arthur Waley, Three Ways of ThoUjht in Ancient ChiTld (Gar· den City, New York, n.d . ) , p. 1 3 1 . 4 . Military Writings, pp. 81 , n 3-�4. 5. Basic Tactics (New York, 1966 ) . p. 98. 6. The ChineN C/aaia, V, 183. 7. The Need for Roots, trans. Arthur Wills (Boston, 195 5 ) , p. 1 59 · 8 . A Theory o f Tunice (Cambridge, Mass., 1 97 1 ), p . 379. Compare Vitoria: ". . . whatever is done in right of w.ar receives the construction most favorable to the claims of those engaged in a just war." On the lAw of WIIr, p. 180. 9 . This seems to be G. E. M. Anscombe's position in the two essays already cited: Mr. TN"""'" Degree and "War and Murder." 10. For a discussion of what it means to "override" a moral principle, see Robert Nozick, "Moral Complications and Moral Structures," 34-3 5 and notes ( 1968 ) .

15

13 Natural lAw Forom

Aggression and Neutrality

1. Philip C. Jessup, Neutrality: Its Hinory, Economicr, and lAw (New York, 1936 ) , IV, 80 (emphasis added ) . 2 . W. E. Hall, The Right, and Dutie. of Neutral. ( London, 1 874) is the best account of the laws of neutrality. 3. Westlake, International LAw, II, 162. 4. The speech is reprinted in The Theory and Practice of Neutrality in the Twentieth Century, ed. Roderick Olley (New York, 1970 ) , p. 83. 5. Theory and Practice of Neutrality, p. 74. 6. Liddell Hart, The Real War, pp. 46-47. 7. For an example of the American response, see James M. Beck, Th. Evidence in the Cue: A DiBcwsion of the Moral Res/Xlnsibility for the War of 1 9 1 4 (New York, 1 9 1 5 ) , esp. ch. IX. 8. Socialism and WIIr, p. 1 5. 9. Nils Oervik, The Decline of Neutrality: 1 9 1 4-1941 (Oslo, 1ns: Non-Violence in National Defense (New York, 197 5 ) , p. I H . 2 . Sharp, p. 51.

Notes 3. But an enemy state micht threaten to bomb rather than invade; on this pos. sibility, see Adam Roberts, "Civilian Defense Strategy," in Civilian RaiatdllQl til 4

N4tionod D-tmMI, ed. Roberts (Hammondsworth, 1969 ) , pp. 26S-,2. 4· Collected &.yr, Tournodimt, tmd Lm...., vol. 4, p . 469. 5. Louis Fischer, Gcmdhi and Stdlin, quoted in Orwell's "Re8ectioos," p. 468. 6. "Lessons from Resinance Movemeats--Guerla ril and Non·Violent," in CivilUrn RaiIt_, p. 240. 7. For . brief account of Czech resistance, see Boserup and Mack, pp. 102-16. 8. Sharp, p. 66; h1.Jt he believes that the degree and meat of sulferinc will be "vastly smaller" than in regular warfare (p. 6 5 ) .

INDEX

Acheson, Dean, 1 1 8- 1 20 Act of state doctrine, 289-290 Aggression, 2 1 , 3 1 , 1 l 3; defined, 51-53; legalist paradigm of, 61-63; and ap­ peasement, 67-72; theory of, presup­ position, 71; and threats, 85; and neutrality, 1 H-150; responsibility for, 187-303; and non-violence, HO Agincourt, battle of, 17-19 Akibiades, 9, 1 0, H7 Algiers, battle of, 204-205 Alsace-Lorraine, 5 5-56, 65, 67, l.p Ambush, 143, 176 Annexation, I II n Anscombe, GKM_, 145, 179, 348, 3 50 Appeasement, 67-71 Aquinas, St. Thomas, xiv Aristotle, 198 Aron, Raymond , 177 Assassination, 1 83, 1 8 5, 193, 198-103 Athens, S-Il, 1 1 4 Atlanta, buming of, 3 1-H Austin, WalTen, 1 1 8 Austri�n Empire: and Hungarian revolu­ tion, 91-95

Bacon, Francis, 6n, 77-78 Balance of power, 76.-80, 1 11 Balance of terror, 170, 174, 275 Baldwin, Stanley, 151 Bangladesh, 105-107 Barbarians, 89n Batchelder, Robert, 349 Beatty, Admiral David, 145 Beaufre, Andre, 277, 281 Beirut raid, 1 1 8-HO Belgium: neutrality of, 2 3 5, 140-242, 191 Bell, A .C . : quoted, 173 Belligerent rights, 91, 96, 1 8 5n Benevolent quarantine, 46, 177, 1 8 5, 101 Bennett, John, 270 Bennett, Jonathan, 344

Bernard, Montague, 96-- 5 Henry V , of England, 17-19

2 58, ,61 ,

Herodotus, 6n Hiroshima,

19,

1 60,

204n,

255,

264-

268, 269

Hi tler, Adolf, 37, 68, 1 1 3 , 1 1 5, 243, 2 48, 263, '92, 293, 295; see also Nazism Hobbes, Thomas, 2 3 , 26, 57, 68, 77; and realism, 4, 5, Hochhllth, Rolf, 3 >4

7,

1 0- 1 3

HoIinshed, Raphael,

1 7, 19 203,

6, 34,

Chivalry

198,

Jaeger, Werner, 7 Japan : in World War I I, 89, 1 1 3, 263268; in Russo-Japanese War, 167

Jarrell, Randall, 40, 109 Jerusalem, siege of, 160-162, 165 Jews, 162, 203, 294, 3 3 2 Jones, James, 308 Josephus, 160- 1 6 2 , 1 f 5 Justice: meaning of, 1 0- 1 1 ; o f war and

Hoffmann, Stanley, 3 37

Honor,

reprisal policy of, 2 1 6-220 Italian-Ethiopian War, 2 37n, 292

in 229; see

/lisa

war

(ius /ld bellum and

ius

in

bello ) , distinguished, 2 1 ; legalist para­ digm of, 58-63; Marx's view of, 66;

3 57

Justice ( Cant . ) and prudence, 67--ti8, 94� 5 ; i n settle­ ments, l l 7-1 23 ; tensions

in theory of,

MacArthur, General Douglas, 1 1 8,

McDougal, Myres, S., 337; quoted, 2 1 1, 114

realists' critique of, l lo­ I l l ; a nd war convention, 1 28; vigi­ lante, 103; and responsibility, 187-

McKinley, William,

288;

Maimonides, Moses, xiv, 1 68

1 23 , 228;

see