Terrorism and `just war'

Christian Century, Nov 14, 2001 by Martin L. Cook, Glen Stassen, Jean Bethke Elshtain, James Turner Johnson

If it abides by just war constraints, the U.S. will put its combatants in harm's way to punish and interdict those who have put our noncombatants in harm's way. This is responsible action.

Jean Bethke Elshtain teaches at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Her books include Augustine and the Limits of Politics. This article is adapted from remarks she made in Washington, D.C., in early October at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. For the full discussion, see <www.pewforum.org>.

Authority and intention

James Turner Johnson

IN RECENT DAYS some people have argued that we ought not use military force against Osama bin Laden and his supporters or against the al-Qaeda terrorist network, and that instead we ought to make use of judicial processes. Those making this argument fail to realize that morally there is no difference between a police action and the international projection of force. Augustine, who was pivotal in developing the idea of a just war, made this point directly. The central distinction for him was between the public and private use of force. Force is properly used only by those who hold political authority and who have responsibility for the public good. Any use of force for private ends is wrong.

This question of "right authority" in the just war tradition seems to me especially important in considering the phenomenon of terrorism. In recent years, most discussions of just war have focused first on the issue of "just cause." This is true, for example, in the work of the U.S. Catholic bishops during the 1980s and 1990s as they considered nuclear war. It was true of my own thinking in this period. The reason for this emphasis, I think, was that the notion of "right authority" seemed relatively clear: the right authority was the nation state as recognized by other nation states.

But as Augustine and his medieval and early modern successors knew well, the question of "proper authority" remains a central issue in thinking about a just war, for it is the proper authority--the government or the leaders--that has the responsibility of serving the public good. Those who have this authority and responsibility must first determine whether the use of force would satisfy the primary moral requirements of just cause and right intention and the purpose of restoring peace. They then must use prudential reasoning to decide whether even a justified use of force would produce more good than harm, would have a reasonable hope of success, and would be the only course likely to be effective in achieving the justified ends.

In this respect, we need to think harder about what we mean by "right intention." In recent debate, it has usually meant something like "an intention in line with a just cause." But Augustine had something different in mind. When he gives examples of wrong intentions, he mentions things like the lust to dominate, the lust for power, the lust for cruel revenge--these are the kinds of intentions or mind-sets that we don't want to have when thinking about restoring justice. But these are precisely the kind of intentions that animated the terrorist attacks of September 11.