Walzer's 'Just And Unust Wars'

Kevin Kearney
March 23, 2003
History 220

Walzer, Michael. Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations. New York: BasicBooks, 1992. 368 pp.

Michael Walzer first wrote Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with

Historical Illustrations in the years following the Vietnam War, and unfortunately its

premise on morality in war will always remain as relevant as it was then as it is now, with

conflict between states forever existing. Michael Walzer is one of the most prominent

social critics in North America and in this book, he explores two main concepts, the

justice of war and the justice in war in a great depth, and uses numerous historical

references to support his claims. It is a very well configured piece, written in such a way

of persuasion that your personal view on morality in war may ultimately change after

delving into thoughts for several hundred pages.

To an overwhelming majority of people, the words ‘war' and ‘morality' have

seemingly opposing meanings, however in the preface to his book, Walzer points out that

"whether or not its specific terminology is adapted, just-war theory has always played a

part in official argument about war" (Walzer XI). He proceeds to discuss in a greater

detail the ways that war has been perceived and how this impacts the topics of war and

morality, and in doing so, he provides an intelligently structured and persuasive argument

that can be viewed within a moral context. He addresses this topic both from the view of

the role of the state and also from the perspective of how the decision to fight impacts the

individual.

Walzer takes the position that an individual should fight only for private and

personal reasons rather then from nationalistic feelings because he feels that it is crucial
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that this decision should be freely chosen and that it constitutes one of the crucial

requirements for a ‘just' war....