Editing Just war theory (section)

===Just war tradition===
The just war theory, propounded by the medieval Christian philosopher [[Thomas Aquinas]], was developed further by legal scholars in the context of [[international law]]. [[Cardinal Cajetan]], the jurist [[Francisco de Vitoria]], the two [[Jesuit priest]]s [[Luis de Molina]] and [[Francisco Suárez]], as well as the [[humanist]] [[Hugo Grotius]] and the lawyer [[Luigi Taparelli]] were most influential in the formation of a ''just war tradition''. The just war tradition, which was well established by the 19th century, found its practical application in the [[Hague Peace Conferences]] (1899 and 1907) and in the founding of the [[League of Nations]] in 1920. After the [[United States Congress]] declared war on Germany in 1917, Cardinal [[James Gibbons]] issued a letter that all Catholics were to support the war<ref name=NCR>{{cite news|title=Ben Salmon and the Army of Peace |url= http://ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/ben-salmon-and-army-peace |newspaper=[[National Catholic Reporter]] |author= John Dear |date= 23 February 2010}}</ref> because "Our Lord Jesus Christ does not stand for peace at any price... If by Pacifism is meant the teaching that the use of force is never justifiable, then, however well meant, it is mistaken, and it is hurtful to the life of our country."<ref>{{cite book|title= A History of the Parish of Trinity Church in the City of New York: The rectorship of Dr. William Thomas Manning 1908 to 1921|author=C. T. Bridgeman |year=1962|page=256}}</ref>

Armed conflicts such as the [[Spanish Civil War]], [[World War II]] and the [[Cold War]] were, as a matter of course, judged according to the norms (as established in Aquinas' just war theory) by philosophers such as [[Jacques Maritain]], [[Elizabeth Anscombe]] and [[John Finnis]].<ref name=":1" />

The first work dedicated specifically to ''just war'' was the 15th-century sermon ''De bellis justis'' of [[Stanisław of Skarbimierz]] (1360–1431), who justified war by the [[Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569)|Kingdom of Poland]] against the [[Teutonic Knights]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=David |first=Saul |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=8Llw8JSZEXYC&dq=De+bellis+justis+Stanis%C5%82aw+of+Skarbimierz&pg=PA345 |title= The Encyclopedia of War from Ancient Egypt to Iraq |date=1 October 2009 |publisher=Dorling Kindersley Limited |isbn= 978-1-4053-4778-5 |pages= 345 |language= en |chapter= Ethics of War |author-link= Saul David}}</ref> [[Francisco de Vitoria]] criticized the conquest of America by the [[History of Spain|Spanish]] [[conquistador]]s on the basis of just-war theory.<ref>{{Cite journal| url= https://lawreview.avemarialaw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/AMLR.v.10i2.salas_.pdf| title= Francisco de Vitoria on the Ius Gentium and the American Indios| journal= Ave Maria Law Review| date= 2012| author= Victor M. Salas Jr.| access-date= 11 July 2022| archive-date= 9 December 2021| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20211209150822/https://lawreview.avemarialaw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/AMLR.v.10i2.salas_.pdf| url-status= dead}}</ref> With [[Alberico Gentili]] and [[Hugo Grotius]], just war theory was replaced by [[international law]] theory, codified as a set of rules, which today still encompass the points commonly debated, with some modifications.<ref>[[Gutman]] R, Rieff D. ''[[Crimes of War]]: What the Public Should Know''. New York, NY: [[W. W. Norton & Company]]; 1999</ref>

Just-war theorists combine a moral abhorrence towards war with a readiness to accept that war may sometimes be necessary. The criteria of the just-war tradition act as an aid in determining whether resorting to arms is morally permissible. Just-war theories aim "to distinguish between justifiable and unjustifiable uses of organized armed forces"; they attempt "to conceive of how the use of arms might be restrained, made more humane, and ultimately directed towards the aim of establishing lasting peace and justice".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.justwartheory.com |title=JustWarTheory.com |publisher=JustWarTheory.com |access-date=16 March 2010 |archive-date=6 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306044341/http://www.justwartheory.com |url-status=usurped }}</ref>

The just war tradition addresses the morality of the use of force in two parts: when it is right to resort to armed force (the concern of ''[[jus ad bellum]]'') and what is acceptable in using such force (the concern of ''[[jus in bello]]'').<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.eppc.org/publications/pubID.1998/pub_detail.asp |title= Home > Publications > |publisher= Eppc.org |date= 1 September 1998 |access-date= 16 March 2010 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090509230737/http://www.eppc.org/publications/pubID.1998/pub_detail.asp |archive-date=9 May 2009}}</ref>

In 1869 the Russian military theorist {{ill|Genrikh Antonovich Leer|ru|Леер, Генрих Антонович}} theorized on the advantages and potential benefits of war.<ref>
{{cite book| author1 = Genrikh Antonovich Leer |title = Opyt kritiko-istoricheskogo issledovaniya zakonov isskusstva vedeniya voyny|script-title = ru:Опыт критико-исторического исследования законов искусства ведения войны |trans-title = Critico-historical research into the laws of the art of the conduct of war |publication-date = 1869 |page = 1ff | publisher=Рипол Классик |isbn = 9785458055901}}</ref>

The Soviet leader [[Vladimir Lenin]] defined only three types of just war.<ref>{{cite web|title= Just Wars in the Light of Marxism|publisher=Marxists Internet Archive|first= Erich|last= Wollenberg|url= https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/ni/vol03/no01/wollenberg.htm}}</ref>

<blockquote>But picture to yourselves a slave-owner who owned 100 slaves warring against a slave-owner who owned 200 slaves for a more "just" distribution of slaves. Clearly, the application of the term "defensive" war, or war "for the defense of the fatherland" in such a case would be historically false, and in practice would be sheer deception of the common people, of philistines, of ignorant people, by the astute slaveowners. Precisely in this way are the present-day imperialist bourgeoisie deceiving the peoples by means of "national ideology" and the term "defense of the fatherland" in the present war between slave-owners for fortifying and strengthening slavery.<ref>{{cite web|title=Socialism and War, ch. 1|publisher=Marxists Internet Archive|first= Vladimir|last= Lenin |url= https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1915/s-w/ch01.htm}}</ref></blockquote>

The [[anarcho-capitalist]] scholar [[Murray Rothbard]] (1926–1995) stated that "a ''just'' war exists when a people tries to ward off the threat of coercive domination by another people, or to overthrow an already-existing domination. A war is ''unjust'', on the other hand, when a people try to impose domination on another people or try to retain an already-existing coercive rule over them."<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.lewrockwell.com/1970/01/murray-n-rothbard/whats-a-just-war |title=Just War |access-date=26 June 2019 |author=Murray N. Rothbard |website= lewrockwell.com}}</ref>

[[Jonathan Riley-Smith]] writes:
<blockquote>The consensus among Christians on the use of violence has changed radically since the crusades were fought. The just war theory prevailing for most of the last two centuries—that violence is an evil that can, in certain situations, be condoned as the lesser of evils—is relatively young. Although it has inherited some elements (the criteria of legitimate authority, just cause, right intention) from the older war theory that first evolved around AD 400, it has rejected two premises that underpinned all medieval just wars, including crusades: first, that violence could be employed on behalf of Christ's intentions for mankind and could even be directly authorized by him; and second, that it was a morally neutral force that drew whatever ethical coloring it had from the intentions of the perpetrators.<ref>{{cite web |title= Rethinking the Crusades |publisher= Catholic Education Resource Center |first=Jonathan R. |last=Smith |url= http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0042.html | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20010723130919/http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0042.html |archive-date=23 July 2001}}</ref>
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