THE JUST WAR THEORY

According to the Just War theory, War is also justified on the basis of some conditions. The question is, When is a war justified? Under what circumstances do legal, ethical and moral principles justify aggression?

Michael Walzer presents the theory of aggression in the form of six propositions:

1. There exists an international society of independent states. These states are sovereign entities. These states and not private citizens are members of this international society of nations.
2. This international society has a law that estabishes the rights of its members -above all rights of territorial integrity and political sovereignty.
3. Any use of force or imminent threat of force by one state against the political sovereignty or territorial integrity of another constitutes aggression and is a criminal act. The focus here is on boundary crossings: invasions and physical assaults (in modem times this would also include low-intensity conflict situations, like insurrections and dissent movements turning into localised conflicts).
4. Aggression justifies two kinds of violent response: a war of self-defence by the victim and a war of law enforcement by the victim and any other member of the international society. The presumption here is that the retaliation against the aggressor may or may not come from the aggrieved party; it may come from any other state that feels compelled to return to the stability of the international society.
5. Nothing but aggression can justify a war. The central purpose of the theory is to limit the occasion for a war. There must have been a wrong committed and a wrong received by the recipient to justify use of force.
6. Once the aggressor state has been militarily repulsed, it can also be punished. The conception of just war as an act of punishment is old, but the procedures and forms of punishment have never been established in customary or positive international law. The purposes of such a punishment has also not been spelt out – whether it is for retribution, deterrence against any other state or reform of the original aggressor.