Changing the Rules

Abstract

Despite the long tradition and complex theory underlying the just war tradition, contemporary just war reasoning narrowly focuses simply on the established criteria for war. Yet these criteria were codified by the fifteenth century and favor the kinds of wars that could be fought at that time. Historic changes—in politics, economics, technology, and religion, among other spheres—not only have changed the nature of warfare, but have limited the applicability of the original just war criteria. Contemporary just warriors ought to turn to the deeper Christian values and virtues that underlie traditional just war theory and use them to develop new just war criteria that function better in the twenty-first century.