Military Necessity Through Peace?

Abstract

Traditionally, military necessity rules out acts of military violence that are not directed at a just cause or at least incompatible with achieving a just cause. According to the more radical version of this idea from Plato’s Laws and Augustine’s De Civitate Dei, military actions should be geared at peace as the ultimate goal and thus, only count as necessary if they are indispensable for peace. Peace, following Plato and Augustine, is understood in terms of a well-ordered concord between individuals, which is analogous to the relation of biological parts and their functions in a healthy body. While the general idea will be found sensible, the proposition that peace is best understood in terms of an order analogous to the relation of biological parts and functions in a healthy body will be rejected. In its stead, peace should be understood in terms of vital needs of individuals in concord.