Just-war thinkers address postwar obligations at round table

Published: 2006-08-29

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have sparked new discussion among just-war theorists about the postwar obligations of those who invade a country to topple a hostile or dangerous government. Paralleling the traditional just-war categories of "ius ad bellum," or the moral conditions for going to war, and "ius in bello," or moral conduct in war, the theorists have labeled the question of postwar responsibilities "ius post bellum." Those responsibilities are difficult and complex and should serve as a caution against warfare as a way to deal with dangerous states, said three Washington-area experts convened by Catholic News Service Aug. 21 to discuss just-war issues in the five years since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Maryann Cusimano Love, a professor of politics at The Catholic University of America and an expert on terrorism and ethics in international relations, said that in light of the difficulties in Iraq and Afghanistan the discussion of postwar responsibilities is clearly one of the "growing edges" in current developments in the just-war tradition.

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