CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY DAREN BOWYER JUST WAR DOCTRINE

the principal foci of this thesis. Whilst opposition to the 2003 war with Iraq was
widespread and vocal throughout Europe, including the UK, America’s principal ally in
waging the war, little of that opposition was pacifist-based. Indeed, it was far more
framed in the language of just war (as, indeed, were the arguments in favour of military
action). In the UK, pacifism ceased to be an influential factor in mainstream politics (if
it ever was) when the Labour Party dropped its commitment to nuclear disarmament.
1.1.5 A Conceptual Place for Ethics
Leaving aside militarism and pacifism, which it has been argued are extreme cases with
little influence on policy makers, this thesis has now, then, to show that for those who
determine the international policy, particularly of the UK and US, ethics can play a part
in determining when and how to use military force, wherever their theoretical leaning
lies within the ‘Three Traditions’ construct. In other words, that ethics – and especially
just war doctrine – has a part to play for realists, liberals and proponents of International
Society, when they consider when and how to use force.
Joseph Nye, whose work as a liberal-institutionalist was discussed above (see p20 et
seq), suggests there are (at least) three evaluative approaches at work in International
Relations (and therefore responses to war):
those of the sceptics, the state moralists, and the cosmopolitans. Although there
is no logical connection, people who are realists in their descriptive analysis of
world politics often tend to be either skeptics or state moralists in their
evaluative approach, whereas those who emphasize a liberal analysis tend
toward either the state moralist or cosmopolitan moral viewpoints. 103
Skeptics deny that normative argument has meaning in international relations; state
moralists, in Nye’s definition 104 , ‘argue that international politics rests on a society of
states with certain rules, although those rules are not always perfectly obeyed.’
Sovereignty and territorial integrity have emerged foremost among these rules.
Cosmopolitans see the world in terms of a society of individuals – a world community –
and base their ethical evaluations accordingly. Nye makes no specific mention of
International Society as a theoretic approach, but if we follow his definition of state
moralists it is clear that International Society adherents are likely to be, in the main,
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