JUST AND UNJUST WARS
A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations
Michael Walzer
Basic Books, third edition (2000)
(first published in 1977)

"For as long as men and women have talked about war, they have talked about it in terms of right and wrong. And for almost as long, some among them have derided such talk, called it a charade, insisted that war lies beyond (or beneath) moral judgment. War is a world apart, where life itself is at stake, where human nature is reduced to its elemental forms, where self-interest and necessity prevail. Here men and women do what they must to save themselves and their communities, and morality and law have no place. Inter arma silent leges: in time of war the law is silent.

Sometimes this silence is extended to other forms of competitive activity, as in the popular prover, 'All's fair in love and war.' That means that anything goes—any kind of deceit in love, any kind of violence in war. We can neither praise nor blame; there is nothing to say. And yet we are rarely silent. the language we use to talk about love and war is so rich with moral meaning that it could hardly have been developed except through centuries of argument. Faithfulness, devotion, chastity, shame, adultery, seduction, betrayal; agression, self-defense, appeasement, cruelty, ruthlessness, atrocity, massacre —all the words are judgments, and judging is as common a human activity as loving or fighting.

It is true, however, that we often lack the courage of our judgments, and especially so in the case of military conflict. The moral posture of mankind is not well represented by that popular proverb about love and war. We would do better to mark a contrast rather than a similarity: before Venus, censorious; before Mars, timid. Not that we don't justify or condemn particular attacks, but we do so hesitantly and uncertainly (or loudly and recklessly), as if we were not sure that our judgments reach to the reality of war.

Realism is the issue. The defenders of silent leges claim to have discovered an awful truth: what we conventionally call inhumanity is simply humanity under pressure. War strips away our civilized adornments and reveals our nakedness....Paradoxically, the description is often a kind of apology: yes, our soldiers committed atrocities in the course of the battle, but that's what war does to people, that's what war is like. The proverb, all's fair, is invoked in defense of conduct that appears to be unfair. And one urges silence on the law when one is engaged in activities that would otherwise be called unlawful. So there are arguments here that will enter into my own argument: justifications and excuses, references to necessity and duress, that we can recognize as forms of moral discourse and that have or don't have force in particular cases...." Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars (3rd edition, 2000), Part One, The Moral Reality of War, Chapter 1, "Against 'Realism'," pp. 3–4

BOOK DESCRIPTION
PUBLISHER
"With a special new preface that considers the moral implications of intervention in the countless interethnic conflicts that have plagued the last decade, Michael Walzer's classic work draws on historical illustrations that range from the Athenian attack on Melos to the My Lai massacre, and uses the testimony of participants— decision makers and victims alike—to examine the central questions of war and morality. Walzer's discussion of war as the severest moral test that men and women ever face is a timeless piece of political and moral theory."

THE READER'S CATALOG–THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS
"An excellent work notable not only for its conclusions but for its historical and logical method of discourse...."

BOOK NEWS
"A reprint with a new preface of Walzer's respected treatment of the morality of war." 

BOOK REVIEWS
THE ATLANTIC
Updated in light of recent events, this classic work—with more than 60,000 copies sold in previous editions— presents "a clear, humane, and startlingly original survey of the moral issues that complicate modern war-making." (quoted in The New York Times Book Review)

THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS
"A magnificent book, an honor to its writer...a book that makes for a return of civilized discussion of the question of the morality of war."

THE NATION
"Walzer has written one of the most significant modern restatements of just war thinking. It should be studied by anyone interested in stemming the Machiavellian/Kissengerian tide of the times."

WASHINGTON POST
"A passionate defense of the old principle of noncombatant immunity....[He] is both thorough and persuasive in his exploration of a very intricate subject."