The Renegotiation of the Just War Tradition and the Right to War in the Twenty-First Century

This book examines the manner by which the just war tradition has been invoked, engaged and developed in the context of the war on terror, paying particular attention to the questions of anticipatory war, humanitarian intervention, and punitive war.

"The Iraq war has given rise to a full-scale debate about just war theory (and practice) - not only among professors but also among political leaders and right and left-wing intellectuals. Cian O Driscoll provides a remarkably comprehensive and nuanced account of this debate, sets it in its historical context, and expertly explains all its historical references. And then he joins the debate himself, with an appealing judiciousness, without polemical zeal." - Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study

"In this lucid volume, Cian O'Driscoll examines critically the use of the idiom of just war proffered by President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair to justify the invasion of Saddam Hussein's Iraq. O'Driscoll takes up the arguments of contemporary just war scholars who either contested or accepted the rationale of the two war leaders, engaging their positions in a balanced, hard-hitting analysis. [This book] is a significant contribution to just war scholarship and Cian O'Driscoll is a scholar we will hear more from in years to come." - Jean Bethke Elshtain, Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics, University of Chicago, author of Just War against Terror

"The Just War tradition is playing an increasingly prevalent role in shaping public debates about the legitimacy of force. This book sheds important new light on the role the tradition plays and demonstrates how politicians and public commentatorsdraw upon particular interpretations of the tradition to justify potentially controversial policies. Lucid, engaging and sophisticated, O Driscoll reminds us that critical moral dialogue about war is an indispensable feature of civilised society" -

Alexander Bellamy, Professor, Department of Politics, University of Queensland, Australia.

CIAN O'DRISCOLL is a lecturer in International Relations at the University of Glasgow, UK.