Abstract

Discussions about how just war principles should apply in revolutionary situations were intense in the years after World War II. Both the sheer number of revolutions and the frequent recourse to guerrilla strategies sparked debates in the fields of Christian theology, ethics and international law. Literature produced during that period is scattered in a wide range of sources including church documents, foreign publications and the official documents of the United Nations. This dissertation reviews and critiques representative samples of that literature, to discern how the just war tradition should be applied in revolutionary situations. ;Chapter one offers a theological account of the just war tradition as applied to rebellion against tyrants and illegitimate governments. This historical account shows how the dissolution of Christendom and the erosion of medieval hierarchical presuppositions eventually allowed emphasis upon human rights and international law. After World War II, wars of liberation and superpower sponsored proxy wars have demonstrated that existing conventions governing the conduct of war offer only inadequate humanitarian constraint on wars of revolution. During the same period, while Christians in the first world showed renewed interest in pacifism, Christians in the Third World asked about the morality of violent revolution. Chapter two reviews these tensions in order to demonstrate the significance of the moral issues at stake in revolutionary war. ;Chapter three critiques Latin American church documents and the ethical arguments developed by individuals who use just war principles. Chapter four examines European authors and raises the issue of ideological usage of just war tradition. Chapter five takes account of U.S. authors whose contributions help clarify some issues, though they focused on nuclear policies. Chapter six examines the following issues emerging from this study: conjunction of just war tradition and claims about institutionalized violence; claims that violence is good; ideological use of the just war tradition; continuing problems in the law of war; implications of an "option for the poor" for just war ethics