CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY DAREN BOWYER JUST WAR DOCTRINE

must again be found from first principles – that is from ethical consideration. The
requirement for justification of resort to force, and then of just conduct in conflict has
three dimensions: international, national/domestic-political, and individual. It will be
shown that internationally the perception of legitimacy is a key underpinning of ‘soft
power’; that nationally it can have a significant impact on popular support for the
government and its war effort; and that for the individuals who must engage in conflict
a firm conviction that both their cause and their conduct is just has an important role to
play in protecting the moral component of fighting power. (British Military Doctrine 2
defines Fighting Power in terms of three components: Physical, Conceptual and Moral.)
2.2 Why a Return to Ethics: The Legalist Paradigm Challenged
2.2.1 The Legalist Paradigm Examined.
Before claiming its actual or imminent demise, some further examination of the legalist
paradigm is required to explain what it is that the term is taken to mean. It was argued
in Chapter 1 (see p54 et seq) that post-World War One a sea-change took place with the
first real efforts to restrict the sovereign right of states to make war. What has become
known as the ‘peace through law approach’ was a distinctive movement within the new
academic discipline of International Relations, coming to prominence in the early years
of that discipline, but it was not itself new. Rather, it could trace its roots, as was shown
in Chapter One, to the thought of Kant, of Grotius, of Vattel, and even to the treaty-law
of the Greek city-states. So E H Carr’s characterisation of the approach as an ‘infantile
disease of the newborn science of international relations’ 3 is inaccurate. Nevertheless,
there are characteristics to the approach post-World War One that distinguish it from
this earlier intellectual tradition and, indeed, justify use of the term ‘sea-change.’
Firstly, there was a marked increase in interest in the approach, which spread among,
inter alia, ‘statesmen, intellectuals and common citizens….’ alike. 4 Secondly, pre-war
the focus had always been on developing and perfecting the existing system of
international legal limitation on the use of force. The Hague Conventions of 1899 and
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