The present volume, which is based on a conference sponsored by the German Foundation for Peace Research and hosted by the Justus Liebig University, Gießen, Germany, presents an interdisciplinary dialogue and a critique of the so-called 'new wars' and their moral justifications.

Since the early 1990s, several military interventions have been justified on the basis of arguments coming close to the ancient theory of just war. This has been the case with so-called humanitarian interventions, anti-terrorist measures, and the initiation of 'preventive' war against 'rogue states'. Increasingly, the principles of the UN Charter-based ius ad bellum, which include formal mechanisms for the authorization of military force, have been superseded by political claims for justice and opportunist arguments or they have been negated by military faits accomplis. The present volume, which is based on a conference sponsored by the German Foundation for Peace Research and hosted by the Justus Liebig University, Gießen, Germany, presents an interdisciplinary dialogue and a critique of the so-called 'new wars' and their moral justifications.