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Michael Walzer closes his seminal book, Just and Unjust Wars,1 on a curious note. He admits that his theory of just war produces inconsistent moral prescriptions. In certain situations, to be explored below, Walzer says his theory both permits and prohibits the same course of action. In these situations, he says, "our judgments are doubled, reflecting the dualist character of the theory of war ... we say yes and no, right and wrong."2 Walzer tells us that this reveals "the ultimate incoherence of the theory of war,"3 and that "the world of war is not a fully comprehensible, let alone a morally satisfactory place."4
In the course of developing his theory of just war, Walzer hints that this practical contradiction has its origins in a contradiction at the theoretical level, in particular, in a tension between his theories of jus ad bellum, justice of war, and jus in bello, justice in war. For instance, at the moment Walzer introduces the jus ad bellum/jus in bello distinction, he warns that the two categories may not cohere. As he says, "The dualism of jus ad bellum and jus in bello is at the heart of all that is most problematic in the moral reality of war."5 He tells us that there is a "tension between ends and means, jus ad bellum and jus in bello."6 And he cautions, "I am not sure whether the moral reality of war is wholly coherent."
Walzer closes Part 2 of the book, which articulates the substance of his theory of jus ad bellum, which he calls the theory of aggression, by saying, again, that there are tensions between it and the theory of jus in bello. Though the theory of aggression is itself coherent, he claims that it is not consistent with jus in bello. "Here," he says, "there appear to be tensions and even contradictions that are internal to the argument for justice."
Though Walzer suggests that the theory's practical contradictions are a product of a contradiction between his theory of jus ad bellum and his theory of jus in bello, he does not explain precisely how these theories contradict each other. This paper is an attempt to find and explain the contradiction in Walzer's theory.
I shall argue that...