Just War Tradition

In our day it is difficult for some, perhaps many, to recall that the West’s Cold War policy of nuclear deterrence—anchored in traditional just war moral principles of just cause, right intention, proportionality, and discrimination—helped avert war rather than increase the prospects of nuclear conflagration.

In this episode the editors discuss Rebeccah Heinrichs’ article about John Kirby’s emotional statement about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mark Tooley’s editorial about Poland and Ukraine as martyr nations, and Christian realist articles from 1947 debating whether the Chinese communists could exist and thrive in a democracy.

With a seemingly genuine response, John Kirby reflects well on Americans and illuminates something of the Western way of war, which follows the Just War Tradition.

This week the editors discussed a Providence event where Yoram Hazony talked about his forthcoming new book “Conservatism: A Rediscovery,” how Christian realists disagreed over US foreign policy as the Cold War began, Mark Tooley’s article about democracy and decadence, and J. Daryl Charles’ article about deterring nuclear blackmail.

Either we deter Russian aggression, which means that we convince Putin that we will not tolerate his first-strike nuclear threats and be intimidated, or we passively acquiesce to nuclear blackmail and Russian butchery of a nation that was promised its integrity and sovereignty five years after the Cold War ended.

Eric Patterson spoke at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia, about how just war thinking can provide analysis on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Paul Miller and Daniel Darling discussed how Christians should think about the war in Ukraine at an event hosted by the Land Center on the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary on April 12, 2022.

The war in Ukraine, with its indiscriminate slaughter and mass murder of thousands, forces us to admit the reality of evil.

This week the editors discuss Debra Erickson’s article about why the Russia-Ukraine War is not World War III, an exchange about pacifism and the just war tradition, and a 75-year-old article about Easter and the resurrection.