This book questions when, why, and how it is just for a people to go to war, or to refrain from warring, in a post-9/11 world. To do so, it explores Just War Theory (JWT) in relationship to recent American accounts of the experience of war. The book analyses the jus ad bellum criteria of just warright intention, legitimate authority, just cause, probability of success, and last resortbefore exploring jus in bello , or the law that governs the way in which warfare is conducted. By combining just-war ethics and sustained explorations of major works of twentieth and twenty-first century American war writing, this study offers the first book-length reflection on how JWT and literary studies can inform one another fruitfully.

Applies just war theory to a range of 20th and 21st century American literary works on the experience of war Each chapter analyses different authors' fictive and non-fictive accounts of war Centers the humanities as a collective body of knowledge well-suited to exploring contemporary ethics

Autorentext

Ty Hawkins is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of English at the University of Central Arkansas, USA. His previous works include Reading Vietnam Amid the War on Terror (2012). Andrew Kim is Director of the Center for the Advancement of the Humanities and Associate Professor of Theology at Marquette University, USA. He is the author of An Introduction to Catholic Ethics since Vatican II (2015).

Inhalt

1 Introduction.- 2 Right Intention.- 3 Legitimate Authority.- 4 Just Cause.- 5 Probability of Success.- 6 Last Resort.- 7 In Bello.- 8 Epilogue.