In a world riven with conflict, violence and war, this book proposes a philosophical defense of pacifism. It argues that there is a moral presumption against war and unless that presumption is defeated, war is unjustified. Leading philosopher of non-violence Robert Holmes contends that neither just war theory nor the rationales for recent wars (Vietnam, the Gulf War, the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars) defeat that presumption, hence that war in the modern world is morally unjustified.

A detailed, comprehensive and elegantly argued text which guides both students and scholars through the main debates (Just War Theory and double effect to name a few) clearly but without oversimplifying the complexities of the issues or historical examples.

Introduction PART 1 Chapter 1: Reconceptualizing War 1.1 Absolute War 1.2 The Interests of the People, the State, and the People Who Rule the State. 1.3 Absolute Violence 1.4 Between War and Peace 1.5 Cyber War and Robotics 1.6 Toward an Ontology of War 1.7 Paradoxes of War 1.8 War, Warfare, and Warmaking 1.9 Synoptic War Chapter 2: The Presumption Against War 2.1 The Ends of Morality and Warfare 2.2 War and Killing 2.3 Act Types and Act Tokens 2.4 The Presumptive Wrongness of Deliberately Killing Persons 2.5 Is Wrongdoing Inescapable? 2.6 The Presumptive Wrongness of War Chapter 3: Realism and War 3.1 Positive and Nonpositive Realism 3.2 Descriptive, Necessitarian, and Normative Realism 3.3 Can it be Immoral to Act Morally? 3.4 War and Morality 3.5 Value Language and Deontic Language 3.6 Synoptic War Neither Right Nor Wrong. 3.7 Warfare Always Subject to Moral Assessment 3.8 Micro and Macro Ethics 3.9 Collective Ethics a Category Mistake PART 2 Chapter 4: Augustine on Ethics and War 4.1 Augustine and the Just War Tradition 4.2 Was Augustine a Personal Pacifist? 4.3 Augustine's Subjectivism 4.4 Motives and Right Conduct 4.5 Personal Pacifism and Clean Hands 4.6 Augustine's Authoritarianism 4.7 Killing Out of Obedience Chapter 5: Anatomy of the Just War Theory 5.1 The Just War Tradition and Just War Theory 5.2 Moral War Theory 5.3 Just War Internalism and Externalism 5.4 What Does Jus Ad Bellum Entitle One to Do? 5.5 Intention, Double Effect, and Deliberate Wartime Killing. 5.6 Right Intention and the Resort to War. 5.7 Right Intention and Individual Combatants. 5.8 Just War Theory's Further Implications. 5.9 License to Kill Chapter 6: Self-Defense and the Alleged Moral Equality of Soldiers 6.1. War and Self-Defense 6.2 A Walzerian Argument for the Moral Equality of Soldiers. 6.3 Personal Self-Defense. 6.4 Self-Defense as a Moral Concept. 6.5 Self-Defense and the Presumptive Wrongness of Killing. 6.6 Personal and Collective Self-Defense. 6.7 Defending a Common Life. 6.8 Self-defense and Liability. 6.9 Self-defense and Just Cause 6.10 Potential Soldiers and Their "Epistemic Duties" Chapter 7: Just Cause and the Killing of Innocents 7.1 Killing Innocents Inherent in Warfare 7.2 Killing and Letting Die 7.3 Intentional and Foreseeable Killing. 7.4 The Counterfactual Test 7.5 A Differential Restriction 7.6 Incidental Harm? 7.7 Hypothetical Cases 7.8 Does a Just Cause permit Killing Innocents? 7.9 The Nazi and the Just Warrior 7.10 The Infringement and Disrespectful Violation of Rights. 7.11 Do Good Motives Suffice? Part 3 Chapter 8: The Vietnam War 8.1 Vietnam a Turning Point for America 8.2 The Indochina War 8.3 The Creation of South Vietnam 8.4 Beginning of the Vietnam War 8.5 External Aggression or Civil War? 8.6 The Nature of the War 8.7 My Lai Unexceptional 8.8 Does Vietnam Defeat the Presumption Against War? 8.9 "Revisionist" History Chapter 9: The Gulf and Iraq Wars in Light of Western Imperialism and Just War Theory 9.1 Continuity Between the Gulf War and the Iraq War 9.2 Western Imperialism in the Persian Gulf 9.3 A Monroe Doctrine for the Persian Gulf 9.4 The Gulf War and Just War Theory 9.5 Was the Gulf War a Last Resort? 9.6 Just War Theory Modified Chapter 10: Kosovo 10.1 The Gulf War and the Kosovo Intervention 10.2 Historical Context 10.3 Civil Conflict 10.4 An Attempted Military Solution 10.5 Illegal NATO Intervention 10.6 The Killing of Civilians 10.7 The Moral Issue PART 4 Chapter 11: The Metaethics of Pacifism 11.1 The Argument Continued 11.2 Actionable Wrongness 11.3 Pragmatic Pacifism 11.4 A Theoretical Objection to Pacifism 11.5 A Pacifist Rejoinder 11.6 A Second Pacifist Rejoinder 11.7 Consequentialist Considerations 11.8 Act Utilitarianism 11.9 Some Implications 11.10 Mediated and Unmediated Consequences Chapter 12: Pacifism and Humanitarian Military Intervention 12.1 The Plight of Individuals Worldwide. 12.2 What is Humanitarian Intervention? 12.3 Why is Humanitarian Intervention Problematic? 12.4 Rights versus Sovereignty 12.5 The Responsibility to Protect 12.6 The Problem for Pacifism 12.7 Epistemic Problems with Humanitarian Military Intervention 12.8 Military Intervention 12.9 War, Just War Theory, and Humanitarian Intervention 12.10 "Humanitarian" intervention in the Real World Chapter 13: Terrorism, Violence, and Nonviolence 13.1 What Is Terrorism? 13.2 Stereotyping 13.3 Terrorism and the Killing of Innocents 13.4 Militarization of the Campaign Against Terrorism 13.5 The Violence of War and Terrorism Chapter 14: Toward a Nonviolent World Order 14.1 Pragmatic Contextualism 14.2 Support of Troops 14.3 Troops and Their Mission 14.4 Patriotism 14.5 Existential Pacifism 14.6 Transforming Young People into Trained Killers 14.7 Logic and War 14.8 Consequences and Proportionality 14.9 Motives and Intentions Again 14.10 A Secular Garden of Eden 14.11 Bringing Good out of Evil Conclusion Bibliography Index