David Martin's TLS review of 'The Price of Peace'
David Martin, the eminent LSE professor (now emeritus), has an outstanding review of what appears to be an outstanding (I just ordered my copy) new book on just war theory - The Price of Peace: Just war in the twenty-first century (Cambridge paperback), eds. Charles Reed and David Ryall - in this week's TLS, June 29, 2007, No. 5439, p 24-25. As it's not online anywhere, I'm afraid you'll have to take my word for it.
***
I'm moving this comment from the comments up to the main text to make it more visible in case anyone wants to respond to it. As I said above, I'm waiting for my copy of The Price of Peace to arrive, so I can't respond to what is said here about the book; I will do so once I've received and read it. But I have very considerable respect for David Martin's views, and I think the review an outstanding short essay - I'm very sorry it is not online, even for a fee (eventually it will show up in the TLS subscriber only archive). If anyone else wants to comment, by all means, and I will comment on the book once I've read it.
***
I would be very interested in hearing others' comments on the review (which I've not seen) and the book (which I have). The book has some fresh faces, and also, usefully for critics, provides recent pieces by "just war" theorists who've helped bring just war theory into disrepute by appropriating it to support the war in Iraq: James T. Johnson, Jean Bethke Elshtain, George Weigel. Sorry, no Michael Novak or R.J. Neuhaus, but the family resemblances within this group are strong enough that the general picture emerges.
One feature of the picture is the trashing of in bello considerations. Others are its romantic attachment to "precision weapons" and the ongoing assault on the American bishops. Omitted from the book, unfortunately, is this group's disdain for the Peace of Westphalia, for the Catechism's worries about "modernorum destructionis mediorum potentia," among other topics.
They dislike Westphalia because it strengthened state sovereignty, which they generally view as merely a troublesome impediment to selective American efforts at regime change. They seldom tell us why Westphalia was desirable: it's as if one man's 30 Years War is another man's (or woman's) humanitarian intervention.
The book omits any reference to Ann Orford's work on humanitarian interventions. Jeffrey Sachs is nowhere to be found.
This does not mean there are not good contributions here. And it is a service to history, if not to the cause of peace, to include Elshtain, Weigel and Johnson. (That Johnson, a real expert on just war, should be as optimistic about "precision weapons" as he is, is damning testimony to the power of academic compartmentalization.)
I'm providing my address because I would be interested in feedback.
Dan Tompkins
Temple University
pericles@temple.edu
1 comment:
I would be very interested in hearing others' comments on the review (which I've not seen) and the book (which I have). The book has some fresh faces, and also, usefully for critics, provides recent pieces by "just war" theorists who've helped bring just war theory into disrepute by appropriating it to support the war in Iraq: James T. Johnson, Jean Bethke Elshtain, George Weigel. Sorry, no Michael Novak or R.J. Neuhaus, but the family resemblances within this group are strong enough that the general picture emerges.
One feature of the picture is the trashing of _in bello_ considerations. Others are its romantic attachment to "precision weapons" and the ongoing assault on the American bishops. Omitted from the book, unfortunately, is this group's disdain for the Peace of Westphalia, for the Catechism's worries about "modernorum destructionis mediorum potentia," among other topics.
They dislike Westphalia because it strengthened state sovereignty, which they generally view as merely a troublesome impediment to selective American efforts at regime change. They seldom tell us why Westphalia was desirable: it's as if one man's 30 Years War is another man's (or woman's) humanitarian intervention.
The book omits any reference to Ann Orford's work on humanitarian interventions. Jeffrey Sachs is nowhere to be found.
This does not mean there are not good contributions here. And it is a service to history, if not to the cause of peace, to include Elshtain, Weigel and Johnson. (That Johnson, a real expert on just war, should be as optimistic about "precision weapons" as he is, is damning testimony to the power of academic compartmentalization.)
I'm providing my address because I would be interested in feedback.
Dan Tompkins
Temple University
pericles@temple.edu
Post a Comment