Justice and the Just War Tradition

<p><em>Justice and the Just War Tradition</em> articulates a distinctive understanding of the reasons that can justify war of the reasons that cannot justify war and of the role that those reasons should play in the motivational and attitudinal lives of the citizens soldiers and statesmen who participate in war. Eberle does so by relying on a robust conception of human worth rights and justice. He locates this theoretical account squarely in the Just War Tradition. But his account is not merely theoretical: <em>Justice and the Just War Tradition</em> has a variety of practical aims one of the most important of which is to serve as an aid to moral formation. The hope is that citizens soldiers and statesmen whose emotions and aspirations have been shaped by the Just War Tradition will be able to negotiate violent communal conflict in ways that respect the demands of justice. So <em>Justice and the Just War Tradition</em> articulates a theoretically satisfying and practically engaging account of the reasons that count in favor of war. Moreover Eberle develops that account by engaging contemporary theorists both philosophical and theological by according due deference to venerable contributors to the Just War Tradition and by integrating insights from military memoire the history of war and the author's experience of teaching ethics at the United States Naval Academy. </p>