Interpretations of conflict : ethics, pacifism, and the just-war tradition /

This 1990 Bross Prize winning book begins with the fact that just-war theory and pacifism share a common committment to the duty of nonmaleficence. It then tries to develop the further implications of this sharing as the two traditions are coaxed into conversation. In this process Miller explains and critiques the doctrines on war of virtually every important Western philosopher and theologian who treated it. Miller's presentations of these authors' ideas, his ordering of them into kinds or around issues, and his comparisons of them are the work of a master craftsman. Particularly enlightening are his treatments of the origins of just-war theory, the three kinds of Catholic pacifism, the WW II work of H. Richard Niebuhr, Paul Ramsey's whole corpus of works, the four positions in the debate about nuclear deterrence, and William V. O'Brien's ranking of just-war principles. This is required reading for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of the morality of war, and it belongs in every college library.-J. M. Betz, Villanova University