6 - Last Resort
Summary
I have always resisted the argument that force is a last resort.
Michael Walzer (2004: 160)The criterion of last resort underlines the primacy of peace over war in just war thinking.
A. J. Coates (1997: 189)The cosmopolitan just cause principle introduced in the preceding chapter might appear to be overly permissive, and the cosmopolitan last resort principle introduced in this chapter might appear to be overly prohibitive. Hence, a chief purpose here is to explore how the two principles are interrelated. To counterbalance overemphasis of the idea of just cause, I am emphasising the idea of last resort.
As the block quotations display, there can be principled moral disagreement about the idea of last resort. Disputably, in Walzer's words, ‘we can never reach lastness, or we can never know that we have reached it’ (2004: 88). Another main purpose is to defend the idea of last resort against such scepticism.
The idea of last resort is discussed both in this chapter and the next, ‘Last Resort and Noncombatant Immunity’. The first part of this chapter contains some introductory remarks. In the second part, a cosmopolitan last resort principle is formulated. In the third part, the principle is applied to some particular cases. In the fourth part, reasonableness standards are proposed. The fifth part appends some additional remarks.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Ethics of Armed ConflictA Cosmopolitan Just War Theory, pp. 134 - 155Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2014