Date: 2014
Type: Contribution to book
The myth of national self-defence
Cécile FABRE and Seth LAZAR (eds), The morality of defensive war, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2014, Mind Association occasional series, pp. 69-89[IOW]
RODIN, David, The myth of national self-defence, in Cécile FABRE and Seth LAZAR (eds), The morality of defensive war, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2014, Mind Association occasional series, pp. 69-89[IOW] - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/61170
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
The right of national self-defence—though deeply entrenched and of long-standing—is a myth, unsupported by coherent moral reasoning. Were states to possess the extraordinary defensive rights attributed by just war theory and the laws of armed conflict, it would have to be the case that states or proto-state groups possess an unusual form of moral value not shared by other social groups. Through an extended discussion of a corporate takeover example, the chapter shows this not to be the case. In the second part of the chapter a distinction is drawn between ‘genocidal aggression’ which threatens the core rights of all or a majority of a community, and ‘political aggression’ which does not. It is argued that coordinated violent defensive measures are justified in the first case, but not in the second.
Additional information:
First Published: 2014
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/61170
Full-text via DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199682836.003.0004
ISBN: 9780199682836
Series/Number: [IOW]
Grant number: FP7/340956/EU
Sponsorship and Funder information:
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement No 340956 - IOW - The Individualisation of War: Reconfiguring the Ethics, Law, and Politics of Armed Conflict.
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