Philosophy Of War Research Articles

The Competitive Pricing Behaviour of Low Cost Airlines in the Perspective of Sun Tzu Art of War

Price wars are the fact of today's aviation industry.This paper seeks to examine the nature of price setting behaviour of low cost airlines and evaluate their financial performance. The findings reveal that the competitive pressure has leaded to price predatory. Based on theSun Tzu Art of War philosophy, this study highlights that the conditions for rationality and success in this business game depends greatly upon the efficiency and intelligence of the line management and believe that the ability to control the price war between these two low cost airlines will provide healthy competition.

Comparing the potential use of oriental war philosophy and western combat strategies in the competition of companies

Sun Tzu’s essays The Art of War are the oldest known treatise on this topic but they have never been surpassed in terms of content and depth of understanding. They are characterised by concentrated wisdom on warfare. Compared to Carl von Clausewitz, Sun Tzu has a clearer vision, deeper understanding of preparation and combat itself and this makes him modern for eternity. Clausewitz wrote more than two thousand years later but he is more indebted to this period than Sun Tzu and this makes him rather obsolete nowadays even though some of his ideas are applicable, even though they can be applied only within the limitations of the moral and ethic values applied in a particular ­territory. If using the approach stemming from Sun Tzu’s oriental war philosophy it is necessary to understand these ideas and to implement them correctly. In this respect we find it very important to point out to the incorrect trend that can be identified in the studies of western literature dealing with this war philosophy.

Distinguishing the Lover of Peace from the Pacifist, the Appeaser, and the Warmonger

How is one to distinguish a true lover of peace from a mere appeaser, a pacifist, and a warmonger? Distinguishing them can be sometimes confusing, as they will often appropriate each other’s language. The criterion for the above distinction does not only lie in outward behavior, as knowledge of inward attitudes is also required. A right understanding of these attitudes and motivations involve at least an implicit grasp of the true nature of peace, which is investigated as something more than the mere absence of war, insofar as peace is primarily a work of two moral virtues: justice and charity. It is in the spirit of justice and charity that the true lover of peace must then distinguish—both in one’s own life and with nations—between what can be ignored and / or forgiven, and what must be redressed. Furthermore, the distinction between the lover of peace and the pacifist, with the possibility of pacifism being a distinct tradition from just war philosophy, is investigated. The argument is made that pacifism should not be considered outside the context of just war because one needs that context to address if and who demands restitution.

The Peace Rhetoric of a War President: Barack Obama and the Just War Legacy

Abstract As a rejoinder to Robert Terrill's recent analysis of Barack Obama's 2009 Nobel lecture, this essay more closely examines that address vis-à-vis the historical foundations of just war philosophy. We argue that Obama's lecture rechannels traditional just war thought by diffusing the potential spatiotemporal reach of American military jurisdiction, praising the supposedly post-political decisions of elite individuals and institutions, and offering ever more inclusive definitions of originary hostile acts that demand the “retribution” of just war. We conclude by addressing the irony that, instead of harnessing that historic occasion for the cause of a renewed global peace, President Obama's lecture actually lays the moral foundation for future conflicts.

The Peace Rhetoric of a War President: Barack Obama and the Just War Legacy

As a rejoinder to Robert Terrill’s recent analysis of Barack Obama’s 2009 Nobel lecture, this essay more closely examines that address vis-à-vis the historical foundations of just war philosophy. We argue that Obama’s lecture rechannels traditional just war thought by diffusing the potential spatiotemporal reach of American military jurisdiction, praising the supposedly post-political decisions of elite individuals and institutions, and offering ever more inclusive definitions of originary hostile acts that demand the “retribution” of just war. We conclude by addressing the irony that, instead of harnessing that historic occasion for the cause of a renewed global peace, President Obama’s lecture actually lays the moral foundation for future conflicts.

“We Have Mingled Politeness with the Use of the Sword”: Nature and Civilisation in Adam Ferguson’s Philosophy of War

Adam Ferguson’s twin reputations as the most republican of the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment and as one of the founding fathers of sociology make him one of the most interesting figures in eighteenth-century political thought. I argue that in his Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767) and elsewhere, Ferguson develops a novel understanding of the place of warfare in human social experience. By deploying a proto-sociological account of the naturalness of warfare between nations he proposes a normative criterion for the assessment of civilisation. This argument sets Ferguson apart from contemporaries like Kant who argued for perpetual peace as a criterion of civilisation.

Trends in just war thinking during the US presidential debates 2000–12: genocide prevention and the renewed salience of last resort

AbstractIn this article, I explore the place of the just war tradition in US foreign policy by examining the use of just war language in the presidential debates in 2000 (Bush-Gore), 2004 (Bush-Kerry), 2008 (McCain-Obama), and 2012 (Obama-Romney). While critics focus on the use and abuse of just war language as rhetorical gloss to persuade the public an upcoming conflict is morally legitimate while serving the national interest, the debates showcase just war principles as part of a language of critical engagement. Each debate cycle allowed for critical reflection on the foreign policy decisions and just war philosophy of the incumbent president. During the time period I examine, the process of critical engagement identified two moral shortcomings of the past – the failure to act to stop the genocide in Rwanda and the premature use of force in Iraq. These perceived failures catalysed convergence, across party lines, on the way some jus ad bellum principles were understood: Just cause as including the moral obligation to intervene in some way to stop genocide and the renewed salience of the principle of last resort. There remained, however, stark differences in the way legitimate authority was understood.

Distinguishing the Lover of Peace from the Pacifist, the Appeaser, and the Warmonger

.. A  How is one to distinguish a true lover of peace from a mere appeaser, a pacifist, and a warmonger? Distinguishing them can be sometimes confusing, as they will oen appropriate each other’s language. e criterion for the above distinction does not only lie in outward behavior, as knowledge of inward aitudes is also required. A right understanding of these aitudes and motivations involve at least an implicit grasp of the true nature of peace, which is investigated as something more than the mere absence of war, insofar as peace is primarily a work of two moral virtues: justice and charity. It is in the spirit of justice and charity that the true lover of peace must then distinguish—both in one’s own life and with nations—between what can be ignored and / or forgiven, and what must be redressed. Furthermore, the distinction between the lover of peace and the pacifist, with the possibility of pacifism being a distinct tradition from just war philosophy, is investigated. e argument is made that pacifism should not be considered outside the context of just war because one needs that context to address if and who demands restitution.

American irregular: frontier conflict and the philosophy of war in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, or The Evening Redness in the West

This article examines the portrayal of frontier conflict in American writer, Cormac McCarthy's 1985 novel, Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West. It argues that McCarthy's work is one of the most profound American literary meditations ever composed on the subject of irregular conflict. The article traces the novel's literary antecedents and historical background and analyses its use of language, its structural narrative, and its lyrical descriptions of bloodshed and extreme guerrilla violence on the Texas–Mexican frontier in the mid nineteenth century. Particular attention is paid to McCarthy's development of a philosophy of war, which is related to the Counter-Enlightenment ideas of Joseph de Maistre and Friedrich Nietzsche. It is suggested that McCarthy employs the experience of irregular conflict on the American frontier as a philosophical lens to articulate the idea of war as a form of divination – an approach that is based on a mixture of Maistre's theory of redemptive violence and Nietzsche's cult of the existential warrior. The article concludes that McCarthy's blending of irregular conflict with a philosophy of war – empowered as it is by some of the most sumptuous of all twentieth-century American literary prose – endow this classic novel with a timeless and transcendental quality. McCarthy's unflinching representation of the anatomy of irregular conflict thus emerges not only as a searing portrayal of America's past frontier experience, but also as a powerful metaphor for understanding the endemic violence of twenty-first century insurgency in such countries as Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Philosophy of War & Peace. By Jenny Teichman

The Philosophy of War & Peace. By Jenny Teichman

The Philosophy of War and Peace ‐ by Jenny Teichman

The Philosophy of War and Peace ‐ by Jenny Teichman

Humanity, terrorism, terrorist war: Palestine, 9/11, iraq, 7/7…, by Ted Honderich, London: Continuum, pp. VII + 206, £12.99the philosophy of war and peace, by Jenny Teichman, exeter: Imprint academic, pp. VIII + 260, £17.95

“I hate war,” de Fontenelle confessed, “for it spoils conversation.” And does it spoil philosophy too, which is always a kind of conversation? Or can philosophers write about war, as now we surely must, in a way that keeps the conversation going without belligerence? Only so, perhaps, can philosophy shed light on this dark field; but how to do it is itself obscured by the passions that wars evoke. Ted Honderich advocates advocacy, “an advocacy of arguments and judgements. A decent philosopher dealing with moral and political questions … is in a line of life higher than that of a trial lawyer, but not out of sight of that line of life. If there is what can be called moral truth, it is not ordinary truth. Desire sits onto it” (7). Honderich's book may be viewed in this light as a sustained speech for the prosecution in the impeachment of Tony Blair and George W. Bush for waging terrorist war and supporting the terrorist wars of others. It is, then, a polemical work, but, unlike a lawyer's, founded on Honderich's own convictions, which are themselves rooted in philosophical belief.

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this article: Australian Dictionary of Biography: Supplement 1580–1980. Edited by Christopher Cuneen, Jill Roe, Beverley Kingston and Stephen Garton The Europeans in Australia: A History Volume Two: Democracy. By Alan Atkinson Engines of Influence: Newspapers of Country Victoria, 1840–1890. By Elizabeth Morrison Genocide and Settler Society: Frontier Violence and Stolen Indigenous Children in Australian History. Edited by A. Dirk Moses Mixed Relations: Asian‐Aboriginal Contact in North Australia. By Regina Ganter, with contributions by Julia Martinez and Gary Lee Struggle Country: The Rural Ideal in Twentieth Century Australia. Edited by Graeme Davison and Marc Brodie My Dearest Brown Eyes: Letters Between Sir Donald Cleland and Dame Rachel Cleland during World War II. Introduced and edited by Nancy Lutton Dear Dr Janzow: Australia's Lutheran Churches and Refugees from Hitler's Germany. Edited by Peter Monteath An Historian's Life: Max Crawford and the Politics of Academic Freedom. By Fay Anderson B.A. Santamaria. Your Most Obedient Servant. Selected Letters: 1938–1996. Edited by Patrick Morgan Australia's Own Cold War: The Waterfront Under Menzies, By Tom Sheridan Asian Alternatives: Australia's Vietnam Decision and Lessons on Going to War. By Garry Woodard The Life and Death of Harold Holt. By Tom Frame The Long, Slow Death of White Australia. By Gwenda Tavan The Longest Decade. By George Megalogenis Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica. By Tom Griffiths Amassing Treasures for All Times: Sir George Grey, Colonial Bookman and Collector. By Donald Jackson Kerr 142 Strand: A Radical Address in Victorian London. By Rosemary Ashton War Experiences in Rural Germany, 1914–1923. By Benjamin Ziemann, translated by Alex Skinner Confront! Resistance in Nazi Germany. Edited by John J. Michalczyk Writing the Holocaust: Identity, Testimony, Representation. By Zoë Vania Waxman Armageddon des Kommunismus — Strategie, Wirtschaft und die DDR 1970–1990: By Bernd F. Schulte Mussolini's Italy: Life under the Dictatorship, 1915–1945. By R.J.B. Bosworth From Roosevelt to Truman: Potsdam, Hiroshima, and the Cold War. By Wilson D. Miscamble C.S.C. Missed Opportunities: US Diplomatic Failures and the Arab‐Israel Conflict 1947–1967. By Candace Karp Regionalism and Globalization in East Asia: Politics, Security and Economic Development. By Mark Beeson Political Economy from Below: Economic Thought in Communitarian Anarchism, 1840–1914. By Rob Knowles Plague Ports: The Global Urban Impact of Bubonic Plague, 1894–1901. By Myron Echenberg Darwin's Coat‐Tails: Essays on Social Darwinism. By Paul Crook The God Delusion. By Richard Dawkins The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine. By Alister and Joanna McGrath The Philosophy of War and Peace. By Jenny Teichman The Law of Armed Conflict: Constraints on the Contemporary Use of Military Force. Edited by Howard M. Hensel Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Perspective. Co‐edited by Ann Curthoys and Marilyn Lake Ways of Knowing: Competing Methodologies in Social and Political Research. By Jonathon W. Moses and Torbjørn L. Knutsen

Logical Empiricism, Politics, and Professionalism

This paper considers George A. Reisch’s account of the role of Cold War political forces in shaping the apolitical stance that came to dominate philosophy of science in the late 1940s and 1950s. It argues that at least as early as the 1930s, Logical Empiricists such as Rudolf Carnap already held that philosophy of science could not properly have political aims, and further suggests that political forces alone cannot explain this view’s rise to dominance during the Cold War, since political forces cannot explain why a philosophy of science with liberal democratic, anti-communist aims did not flourish. The paper then argues that if professionalization is understood in the right way, it might point toward an explanation of the apolitical stance of Cold War philosophy of science.

The philosophy of the Daodejing

For centuries, the ancient Chinese philosophical text the Daodejing (Tao Te Ching) has fascinated and frustrated its readers. While it offers a wealth of rich philosophical insights concerning the cultivation of one's body and attaining one's proper place within nature and the cosmos, its teachings and structure can be enigmatic and obscure. Hans-Georg Moeller presents a clear and coherent description and analysis of this vaguely understood Chinese classic. He explores the recurring images and ideas that shape the work and offers a variety of useful approaches to understanding and appreciating this canonical text. Moeller expounds on the core philosophical issues addressed in the Daodejing, clarifying such crucial concepts as Yin and Yang and Dao and De. He explains its teachings on a variety of subjects, including sexuality, ethics, desire, cosmology, human nature, the emotions, time, death, and the death penalty. The Daodejing also offers a distinctive ideal of social order and political leadership and presents a philosophy of war and peace. An illuminating exploration, The Daodejing is an interesting foil to the philosophical outlook of Western humanism and contains surprising parallels between its teachings and nontraditional contemporary philosophies.

The Buoyancy of Failure

New Orleans and the Mississippi River are often described as a battleground in the war between man and nature. The authors argue that crisis displacement strategies disincline reflection on how this characterization contributes to catastrophic events. The authors outline three sites of crisis displacement: the Army Corps of Engineers, media coverage, and the philosophy of war of the United States government.

Winfield Scott Hancock: Gettysburg Hero, and: George Gordon Meade and the War in the East (review)

Reviewed by: George Gordon Meade and the War in the East David Fitzpatrick George Gordon Meade and the War in the East. By Ethan S. Rafuse. Abilene, Texas: McWhiney Foundation Press, 2003. ISBN 1-893114-36-8. Maps. Illustrations. Index. Pp. 192. $29.95. The most recent additions to the McWhiney Foundation Press's series on "Civil War Campaigns and Commanders," Perry D. Jamieson's Winfield Scott Hancock: Gettysburg Hero and Ethan S. Rafuse's George Gordon Meade and the War in the East, appear to be very similar books. Both are brief on biography while focusing on their selected commander's experiences in the Civil War. Each has numerous concise essays that tell the reader about other key individuals in the narrative. Both are relatively short yet well written. But it is there that the similarities end. Jamieson's work does little more than narrate the events of Winfield Scott Hancock's career. There are few insights into Hancock's command style, his leadership, or the degree to which he influenced the fights in which his division and corps participated. For instance, the chapter entitled "The Third Day at Gettysburg" gives the impression that the most important thing Hancock did that critical afternoon was to ride his horse up and down his corps' line. According to Jamieson's narrative Hancock gave but two orders: one to Henry Hunt to open fire with his artillery; the other to Colonel Arthur Deveraux, commander of the 19th Massachusetts, telling him to plug a gap at "The Angle." Surely Hancock contributed more than this to the day's events. Jamieson often narrates events that are not critical to Hancock's story. For instance, interspersed throughout the chapters that address Gettysburg is an account of J. E. B. Stuart's cavalry raid, an episode critical to the campaign, but one which adds little to an understanding of Hancock. Even more curious is the space dedicated to the election of 1876, an event which, at best, was tangential to Hancock's career, and where Jamieson incorrectly states the situation in the electoral college. The book lacks notes and has only the briefest of bibliographies. Though Gettysburg Hero will be of value [End Page 1264] to those who have a casual interest in the Civil War, this is a work serious scholars can bypass. Such is not the case with Ethan Rafuse's work. Rafuse provides extensive notes and a superb bibliography, containing sources he has used to delve deeply into Meade's personality, intellect, and his philosophy of war and politics, while also looking in detail at Meade as a battlefield commander. Perhaps the largest difference in the two books is that Rafuse's has a clearly identifiable thesis. Rafuse tells the reader that his book "will delineate the forces that shaped the Union war effort in the East and the military and political problems Army of the Potomac generals encountered as they pursued victory" (p. 15). He identifies animosity between West Point-trained officers and the nation's political leadership as the overriding impediment to that army's successful operation. The most significant dispute, he argues, one which began with George B. McClellan, was "was over what line of operations Federal forces should adopt in Virginia." The West Pointers, Meade included, thought that the James River ought be the base of operations in Virginia, while the Lincoln administration insisted on the so-called Overland Route. Meade's Civil War career, Rafuse concludes, "was doomed to frustration by an operational approach he knew was flawed but was unable to convince a hostile civilian authority to change" (p. 16). This is a thought-provoking and, for this reviewer, a controversial argument. In the end, I am not convinced. First, the dichotomy of West Pointers versus politicians is a false one. McClellan himself was a general with political aspirations, which was far more important than his West Point background in making him and his supporters suspect in Lincoln's eyes. Moreover, there were West Pointers, most prominently Henry Halleck, who endorsed the Overland Route. Another problem with the argument is that the alleged weaknesses of the Overland Route that, by Rafuse's account, plagued the Army of...

A philosophy of war

A philosophy of war

Scientists, Business, and the State, 1890–1960

In 1968, Adm. Hyman G. Rickover stunned members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when he charged that “the military-scientific complex … is the really dangerous one,” not Dwight D. Eisenhower's military-industrial complex. Patrick J. McGrath's provocative study of the evolving world views and political roles of scientists over the first six decades of the twentieth century shows how scientists achieved such dubious prominence and at what cost to their progressive social vision. Unlike Paul Boyer, who contends that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima fundamentally transformed American thought and culture, McGrath stresses continuities, tracing the Cold War philosophy of “scientific militarism” to an evolutionary, abundance-producing, meritocratic vision espoused by Edward Bellamy, Herbert Croly, Walter Lippmann, and Herbert Hoover. Influenced by that vision, Progressive Era and 1930s scientists forged alliances with research-minded corporate leaders and began looking toward the government as a potential source of support. World War II dramatically changed the practice of science and gave rise to a new breed of science administrators such as Vannevar Bush, James B. Co-nant, Ernest Lawrence, and Arthur Holly Compton who built on prewar initiatives in harnessing scientists' talents to the war effort. In the postwar period, Bush, Conant, and David Lilienthal helped channel scientists' energies toward combating the perceived Soviet menace. Arguing convincingly that science was key both to expanding prosperity and to safeguarding the nation, those top science administrators joined the political elite, accepting and even promoting the Cold War state's reliance on nuclear weapons and its stringent secrecy requirements.

Russell and the Boer War: from Imperialist to Anti-imperialist

cA"rticles RUSSELL AND THE BOER WAR: FROM IMPERIALIST TO ANTI-IMPERIALIST DAVID BLITZ Philosophy and Honors Program / Central Connecticut State U. New Britain, CT 06050, USA BLITZ@MAIL.CCSU.EDU· B ertrand Russell's philosophy of war and peace, like other aspects of his philosophy, underwent an evolution during the course of his long life, though his commitment to peace and his opposition to war, like his commitment to logic and his distaste for mysticism, was strongly held once it had been established.l How Russell's commitment to peace became established is the subject of this paper.2 For Russell was not always an opponent of war: at the outbreak of the Boer (or South African) War in 1899, Russell, then twenty-seven years of age, was a defender of British imperialism. But by the end of that war, Russell had abandoned this view and had shifted to an anti-imperialist and pro-peace stance which would characterize the rest of his life. My claim for this paper is the following: contrary to published views on the subject-both by Russell himself and one of his most able political biographersI Nonetheless, Russell's philosophy ofwar and peace, like his philosophy oflogic and mysticism, was not a simple one, since he took into account not only general principles, but also concrete circumstances. Although Russell's position was a basically pacifist one after the debate with Louis Couturat that is analyzed in this paper, he nonetheless was a supporter of the Second World War once it had broken out. Similarly, though his commitment to an analytic approach informed by logic was characteristic of all of his later work, he nonetheless had moments, such as the 190I experience discussed below, which he termed "mystical". 2. The editorial assistance of Kenneth Blackwell and the archival assistance of Carl Spadoni of the McMaster Archives were essential to the writing ofthis paper. russell: the Journal of Bemand Russell Studies McMaster Universicy Press n.s. 19 (winter 1999-2.000): 117-42. ISSN 0036-01631 118 DAVID BLITZ Russell's move away from liberal imperialism was neither the result of what has been referred to as his 1901 "conversion experience", nor a product oflater reflections on his part. Rather, it occurred in the course of Russell's debate with the French logician Louis Couturat during the year 1900. Not only was Russell unable to refute Couturat's pacifist arguments; but by his silence and lack of reply he acknowledged that Couturat had refuted Russell's own best efforts at defending imperialism and the rule of the most powerful. THE 1901 CONVERSION EXPERIENCE I will begin with a quotation from Russell's Autobiography, dealing with the well known 190I "conversion experience") On 10 February, having returned to the home of Alfred North Whitehead and his wife after attending a reading ofGilbert Murray's new translation ofa Greek play, Russell found Mrs. Whitehead in great pain, suffering from severe angina or a heart attack. Overwhelmed by her suffering, Russell went through what has been described as his "conversion experience": Suddenly the ground seemed to give way beneath me, and I found myself in quite another region. Within five minutes I went through some such reflections as the following: the loneliness of the human soul is unendurable; nothing can penetrate it except the highest intensity ofthe sort oflove that religious teachers have preached; whatever does not spring from this motive is harmful, or at best useless; itfollows that war is wrong, that a public school education is abominable , that the use of force is to be deprecated, and that in human relations one should penetrate to the core of loneliness in each person and speak to that. (Auto., I: 146; emphasis added) 3 Some commentators have situated the essence of the conversion experience in Russell's childhood loss ofhis parents, as Andrew Brink does in his Bertrand Russell: the Psychobiography ofa Moralist (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities P., 1989). Victor Lowe in his chapter on Russell in AlftedNorth Whitehead: the Man and His WOrk, Vol. I: 1861-1910 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U. P., 1985) cited the psychoanalytic views of Dr. and Mrs. Bennett Simon, who argued that Russell...