Just War Ethics and the Slippery Slope of Militarism

Abstract

Considerations of the ethics of war should more carefully attend to the material conditions of war and the pressures of militarism. To understand contemporary warfare, and the failure of just war theory to restrain war in some cases, we must consider how the military-industrial complex influences warmaking. Militarism and the profit to be made in warfare create a slippery slope of sorts which can incline us to fight wars that are unjust.

Pacifism and Nonviolence: Discerning the Contours of an Emerging Multidisciplinary Research Agenda

“…What implications would a reconsideration of these questions have for the Westphalian order? (Christoyannopoulos, 2022;Dexter, 2012Dexter, , 2019Fiala, 2012Fiala, , 2013Finlay, 2019;Ford, 2020;Head, 2016;Jackson, 2017bJackson, , a, 2018aJackson, , b, c, 2023Jackson et al, 2020;Jespersen, 2020;Moses, 2018Moses, , 2020Persaud, 2022;Reader, 2007;Ryan, 2013Ryan, , 2015Ryan, , 2023 Twelve, there is scope to develop more precise conceptualisations of violence and nonviolence, reflecting on the exact nature of violence (e.g., and Nonviolence 1 (2023) 1-27 institutional violence, property damage, racism, gendered constructs) and on the point at which direct action becomes violent. Are these types of violence equally serious and damaging, and should they all be described as 'violence'?…”