Three months into the 18-month siege of Hippo by the Vandals, St. Augustine (354-430) died of disease at age 76.1 To the city’s defender, Count Boniface, he had written, “[W]ar should be waged only as necessity,” and “[P]eace is not sought in order to the kindling of war, but war is waged in order that peace may be obtained.”2 He thus anticipated three just-war criteria later specified by Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274):3

1. Legitimate Authority: Governments, not individuals or gangs, should wage war.
2. Just Cause: The external provocation and threat must be grave4 and evil.
3. Right Intent: The aim must be a just peace, not the selfish seizure of land, riches, or power.

Augustine and Thomas were particularly concerned with the just grounds for going to war, commonly grouped under the Latin expression, jus ad bellum.5 Subsequent just-war theorists, picking up on Augustine’s insistence on “necessity,” responding to the lessons of history, and accommodating the emergence of new technologies, often speak of other jus ad bellum criteria:

4. Last resort: Peaceful alternatives must be tried and exhausted.
5. Probability of Success: However honorable the cause, a nation must not, in effect, commit suicide by going to war against an overwhelming foe.
6. Defensive Preemption: If the just nation waits until the unjust foe strikes first with weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), such as nuclear bombs, then it is simply too late.6

In the centuries following the death of Thomas, ethicists raised concerns about the conduct of war once entered. To jus ad bellum, they added jus in bello—justice “within” war, an essential aspect of just war theory.7 Two Spanish Catholic theologians were most insightful in this connection—Francisco Vitoria (1483–1546) and Francisco Suarez (1548–1617). They paved the way for special consideration of the following:

7. Non-combatant immunity: As Suarez expressed it, “It is implicit in natural law that the innocent include children, women, and all unable to bear arms.”8 WMDs are often condemned under this criterion, since their deadly force is indiscriminate.
8. Humane weapons: In the last century or so, several international conferences have condemned weapons designed to cause “superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering” (e.g., soft-nosed “dum-dum” bullets and mustard gas).9
9. Proportionality: “Overkill” and a “scorched earth” policy are inexcusable.

Then, considering a history of disastrous peace settlements and of governance policies which set the stage for further war, ethicists are now speaking of jus post bellum—justice in the aftermath of war. Hence, the call for

10. Just Peace: The victors must work for healing.10

This listing is representative, not exhaustive. Some of the criteria overlap, and some are quite controversial. Nevertheless, taken together, they reflect an earnest and godly attempt to make the best of war, which Augustine called a “necessity” in this fallen world.
 
Footnotes:
 
1  Catholic Encyclopedia, ed. 1917, s.v. “Life of St. Augustine of Hippo,” http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02084a.htm (accessed May 12, 2006).
 
2  Augustine, “To Count Boniface,” quoted in War and Christian Ethics, ed. Arthur F. Holmes (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1975), 62-63.
 
3  Thomas Aquinas, “Laws of War ,” Ibid., 108. See Summa Theologiae 2-2, q. 40, art. 1.
 
4  In Just and Unjust Wars, Michael Walzer says, “The general formula must go something like this: states may use military force in the face of threats of war, whenever the failure to do so would seriously risk their territorial integrity or political independence.” Quoted in “Can War Be Morally Justified?” by Robert Holmes, Just War Theory, ed. Jean Bethke Elshtain (New York: NYU Press, 1992), 209.
 
5  The Latin word bellum appears in ante-bellum and a number of conflict-oriented English words, such a “belligerent” and “bellicose.”
 
6  See discussion in Richard L. Purtill, “Curse this Stupid War!” Philosophically Speaking (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1975), 86-87.
 
7  The jus ad bellum and jus in bello distinction is explained and examples of each are given in “Excerpts from The Harvest of Justice Is Sown in Peace,” United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Website, November 1993, http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/international/justwar.htm (accessed May 13, 2006).
 
8  Francisco Suarez, “What Is the Proper Mode of Conducting War?” Holmes, 221. See Suarez, On Laws and God the Lawgiver.
 
9  See, for example, material at “Dum-Dum Bullets,” First World War.com, http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/dumdum.htm (accessed May 12, 2006), and Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Website, “Homepage,” http://www.opcw.org/ (accessed May 12, 2006).
 
10  See discussion of Louis V. Iasiello, “Jus Post Bellum: The Moral Responsibilities of Victors in War,” Navel War College Review (Summer/Autum, 2004): http://www.nwc.
navy.mil/press/Review/2004/SummerAutumn/art3-sa04.htm (accessed May 12, 2006).
 
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 article by Kairos Journal
 
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