How Ukraine’s Just War Challenges Just Peace Theory

Abstract

Theologians from various religious traditions have spoken out recently in favor of the just peace theory as a replacement for the traditional just war theory. This new theory severely limits the possibilities for nations to wage just wars. However, since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing conflict, the academic debate on just peace theory has fallen silent. The necessary self-defense of Ukraine shows how replacement of just war with just peace faces major problems. Besides pragmatic problems, the just peace theory has important theoretical problems from a Roman Catholic point of view. This essay deals with those problems and offers an alternative.