Professor Georges Van Den Abbeele

Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars:  A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations, Fourth Edition (New York:  Basic, 1977).

Study Questions: 

1.  What is “aggression” and why is it “the only crime that states can commit against other states”?

2.  How are the “rights” of political communities like or unlike those of individuals (what Walzer calls the “domestic analogy”)?

3.  What is the importance of “territorial integrity”?

4.  What are the six propositions that make up the “legalist paradigm” for international relations?

5.  Explain the concept of “appeasement.”  When might it be justified?

6.  What is meant by the concept of “balance of power”?

7.  What does Walzer mean by “preventive war”?  Under what circumstances is it justified?

8.  Summarize Mill’s argument about “self-determination” and “self-help” with regard to the sovereignty of political communities.

9.  Under what three circumstances, according to Walzer, might nation-states be justified in intervening in the affairs of another nation-state?

10.  What is the greatest difficulty in evaluating a “humanitarian” intervention?

11.  What is meant by the “legitimate ends” of war?  When should even a just war come to an end?

12.  What do you understand by the phrase, “Doing justice, in the legalist sense, isn't always the right thing to do” (p. 117)?

13.  What is the definition of “supreme emergency” (Chapter 16)?  When is it a legitimate argument to override the conventional rules of war?

14.  What is the difference between jus ad bellum (right to engage in war) and jus in bello (right conduct in war)?