Very nice review of Helen Frowe and Gerald Lang's new book How We Fight: Ethics in war. The book as a whole sounds interesting if you are into the kind of stuff discussed, which I am.
However, the reviewer makes some very important points at the end of his review which I think are worth repeating and adding to. The reviewer points out the conservative nature of the anthology and the fact that this is a problem. By this he means that the questions that are dealt with in the book are standard old questions of just war theory (JWT) and the methodology is that of technical analytic philosophy. I agree. More importantly, as the reviewer points out, good just war theory is able to guide policy makers and perhaps even soldiers make real decisions about real issues.
On that note, I'd also like to point out that although the cast of authors consists mostly of outstanding scholars, there is only one (best I can tell) of the lot who is a veteran of a military or a policy maker. Perhaps such collections would look different if they included and took into account more of such people. There are certainly no lack of scholars who have experience in militaries and with shaping military policy.
However, the reviewer makes some very important points at the end of his review which I think are worth repeating and adding to. The reviewer points out the conservative nature of the anthology and the fact that this is a problem. By this he means that the questions that are dealt with in the book are standard old questions of just war theory (JWT) and the methodology is that of technical analytic philosophy. I agree. More importantly, as the reviewer points out, good just war theory is able to guide policy makers and perhaps even soldiers make real decisions about real issues.
On that note, I'd also like to point out that although the cast of authors consists mostly of outstanding scholars, there is only one (best I can tell) of the lot who is a veteran of a military or a policy maker. Perhaps such collections would look different if they included and took into account more of such people. There are certainly no lack of scholars who have experience in militaries and with shaping military policy.
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