Abstract

This treatise, written by a scholar who is Lecturer in Politics at the University of Reading, is probably the finest presentation of the moral problems of warfare currently available. The second and longer part of the book provides a thoughtful exposition of the principles of just war theory which is rich in examples and perceptive comments; but the more creative and valuable part of the book is the first section which goes under the general heading, “Images of War.” Here Coates, building on the work of Martin Ceadel, discusses four different positions on the relationship of morality and warfare: realism, which “resists the application of morality to war” ; militarism, which “establishes... a moral bias in favor of war” ; pacifism, which is “the moral renunciation of war” and which, like realism, denies that “war can ever be subject to moral limitation” ; just war theory, which “is the only one to uphold the moral limitation of war clearly and consistently”.