Michael Wee

I have a new essay published in Notre Dame University’s Church Life Journal, in which I discuss the limits of just war theory and the recovery of a genuine Christian sensibility towards war. CLJ is something in between a scholarly journal and a magazine, and publishes thoughtful and accessible reflections on Christian thought and the contemporary world. My essay can be found here:

https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/why-just-war-theory-is-not-enough/

As many will know, Pope Leo XIV emerged as the most prominent spiritual and moral leader among critics of the recent US-Iran war. Pope Leo has made suggestions that war is always or almost always wrong, and more recently in his new encyclical he called just war theory ‘outdated’.

Just war theory, while originating with Augustine of Hippo, is not solely of interest to Catholics. Militaries and politicians around the world continue to pay at least lip-service to some notion of just war in order to justify military intervention and military budgets. Hence, these words by a reigning pope carry great significance for many, for they represent a call to rethink conventional approaches to the ethics of war. But of course, they are a particular challenge to Catholics and other Christians serving in the military. Around a quarter of the US military is Catholic, and countries like the US and the UK have military dioceses, complete with bishops, priests, and lay chaplains who provide pastoral care for Catholic soldiers. Hence, any developments in Catholic ethics of war have implications for pastoral practice and also for individual Catholics serving in armed forces.

In my essay, I offer some reflections on how just war theory needs to be placed in a wider context of ethical concerns. After all, modern warfare is rarely reducible to aggression and self-defence, and many individual soldiers and citizens are caught up in conflicts not genuinely between peoples and nations, but between rulers and the ‘arcane calculations of strategic analysts’ (to use the eminent military historian Sir Michael Howard’s phrase). These rarefied models and strategies, though technically impressive and purportedly for the sake of national security, may not always represent the true best interests of ordinary people. My hope is that this essay will be of interest to anyone interested in the ethics of war, regardless of their religious persuasion, and that it will further invigorate ongoing conversations on just war and just peace.