What are the limits of the 'Just War'?

What are the limits of the 'Just War'?

Just War Doctrine

When a country goes to war, it must do so for the right reasons and more importantly for righteous reasons. War must not be merely defensible, not just justified; it must be seen as a 'Just Act'.

Just War Theory asks two question to ensure that war and the acts of war are morally justifiable:

The first question of Just War Theory is 'jus as bellum' - 'Is the war moral?'.

The second question of Just War Theory is 'jus in bello' - ' Is the war waged in a moral manner?'.

An ancient Tellurian scholar Augustine argued nearly 2500 years ago that there are three main criteria for a just war:

1. A Just War must be fought for a Just Cause.

2. A Just War is waged with the aim of restoration of the peace.

3. A Just War must be accompanied by a formal declaration from a competent authority.

The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:

1. The damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;

2. All other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;

3. The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.

4. War must occur for a good and just purpose rather than for personal gain, nation-gain or as an exercise of power. For example, "in the nation's interest" is not sufficiently just cause.

5. Peace must be a central motive even in the midst of violence.

Right Intention is central to the Just War. An authority must fight for the just reasons it has expressly claimed for declaring war in the first place. Soldiers must knowingly also fight for this intention.

These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called the "just war" doctrine. The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good.

A combat action is only a war if said combat actions involved entering into the sovereign space of another state, or attacking their populace and property in open space. Combating internal threats within one’s own jurisdiction does not constitute a war, nor does it require a formal declaration of war.

Just Causes include wars of defense against external invasion and also wars for the safety and sovereignty of the state. Stopping certain types of illegal or immoral acts (usually those considered worse than war) by an aggressor is another accepted cause for Just War.

A Just War has the support of declaration and endorsement by a competent authority. Only The State can legally declare and sanction war, others are mere pirates, raiders and other criminal types.

Warlike threats to the sovereignty and security of the state are meant to destabilize the state and leave it vulnerable to attack.

Just War does not just apply to who to fight, it also applies to how you fight as well. In a Just War, there are Rules of Conduct, including rules for the protection of civilians. Just War cannot be used to violate due process against an individual for possible crimes.

As state-targeted aggression becomes dominated efforts to undermine legitimated authority to execute laws and protect life and property, the state must decide how to justly respond.

A stateless actor, not defending itself from external invasion, nor protecting the safety of its people nor the sovereignty of the state, not stopping certain classes of unconscionable heinous illegal or immoral acts, has neither the justification for the war, nor the status required to declare war.

Force used only to correct a grave, public evil, such as warlike aggression and massive violation of the basic rights of whole populations, can be considered a Just Cause for war.

War can be directed at non-state actors, in the context of 'Just Terms' as a response to acts against the state or who are committing warlike activities or certain classes of unconscionable heinous illegal or immoral acts, and can operate such actions with mere internal sanction from the state’s legitimate authorities; said internal sanctioned war can target individuals in leadership of a said threatening enterprise.

The historic treatment of stateless aggressors such as pirates and certain other classifications of stateless criminals that wage warlike aggression, allows for the application of force of war against individuals committing acts of war against a state and its populace and interests without any state sanction such as a formal declaration of war.

His Grace, Margrave Princely Count Sardar Kumar Sri Rai Sahib Khanzadeh, Imperial Observer to the Mu Draconis System and throughout the Schedar Marche of the the Duchy of Achernar In the Geminga/Solomani Sphere of influence, located in Orion’s Arm (OA) Sector 2814 of the Concordat Dynasty of the Trantorian Galactic Imperium.