The Bounds of Defense

"Liberal conceptions of the moral justification for war have become dominant since the publication of Michael Walzer's Just & Unjust Wars in 1977. This dominance is seen across all contemporary manifestations of just war theory: from international relations and diplomatic discourse, from the minds and proclamations of military commanders and governmental leaders, to the everyday political assertions and philosophical rationalization of most individuals. Similarly, rights-based accounts of the moral justification of individual defensive killing have been dominant since, at least, Judith J. Thomson's work on the issue in the early Seventies. Over the past two decades, however, these already rich fields of research--just war theory and the ethics of defensive harm--have each experienced significant and sustained resurgence"--