Abstract
ABSTRACT Just war theory has long held that the aim of a just war is peace, and not merely victory. This paper examines the question, which has so far been unaddressed in the literature, of how exactly the principles of just war theory orient a war towards peace. Establishing this foundational claim, which I will refer to as the Peace Claim, is crucial in order for just war theory to hold the middle ground between its two main rivals, realism (which holds that we must pragmatically pursue victory) and pacifism (which holds that we must nonviolently pursue peace). I show how peace might function, within just war theory, both as a goal and as a regulative ideal. In order to resist collapsing into either realism or pacifism, however, just war theory must not only show how peace functions within the theory, but also provide a substantive account of peace that can animate the Peace Claim.
Published Version
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