Power and Order: The Shared Logics of Realism and Just War Theory

Conventional wisdom holds that realists support the recourse to war more than just war theorists. I argue that the opposite is true: just war theory produces a more bellicose orientation than realism. Although the two traditions share a set of assumptions about the international system, as well as several underlying logics, the just war tradition's concern with justice leads it to permit many more kinds of war than realism. Thus, if just war theorists wish to restrain violence, they must approach the possibility of achieving justice through war with more skepticism.