Just War Tradition

Jus post bellum justice provides us with two criteria: holding aggressors responsible (punishment) and providing some form of restoration to victims (restitution). The reality of our time suggests a very limited justice.

Does the Catholic Church still believe in the doctrine of just war? Last week, Pope Francis told Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, “At one time we also spoke in our churches of holy war or just war. Today we cannot speak like that.”

This week the editors discuss Marc LiVecche’s conversation with Rebeccah Heinrichs about the war in Ukraine, Mark Melton’s article about sudden changes in public opinion polling, and Eric Patterson’s series about the ethics of ending wars.

Before taking a look at justice, let’s take a step back and consider the explicitly Christian foundations for thinking about political order.

Marc LiVecche and Rebeccah Heinrichs discuss the war in Ukraine, the intersection of just war reasoning and the facts on the ground, future options against Putin, how best to assist President Zelensky and his brave compatriots, and the question of regaining escalatory dominance against the Russian regime.

The jus post bellum (the ethics of ending war and building peace) categories of order, justice, and conciliation can help us think through how the war in Ukraine should end.

This week the editors discuss nuclear threats from Russia, the war in Ukraine, and Mark David Hall’s article about trying to measure Christian nationalism.

Vladimir Putin’s recent announcement to place his nation’s nuclear deterrent forces on a state of heightened alert invites those of us in the free world—and surely the United States—to revisit the just war assumptions that served as a deterrence during the Cold War.

This week the editors discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.