Beyond just war : military strategy for the common good

Lonsdale, David

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to move ethical discourse on military strategy beyond the confines of the established War Convention. This is achieved by utilizing the Common Good, a concept found in political philosophy and theology. The common good acts as a positive organizing concept for socio-political activity. With its focus on peace, development and the flourishing of the individual and community, the common good poses a significant challenge to strategy. This paper constructs an approach to strategy that is compatible with the common good. Importantly, it does so whilst respecting the pursuit of victory as an indispensable component of strategy’s true nature. The theory presented in this paper is then tested in relation to four different modes of strategy: regular war; irregular war; deterrence; and cyberwar.

Citation

Lonsdale, D. (2016). Beyond just war : military strategy for the common good. Journal of Military Ethics, 15(2), 100-121. https://doi.org/10.1080/15027570.2016.1207453

• Acceptance Date: Aug 30, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Aug 30, 2016
• Publication Date: Apr 2, 2016
• Deposit Date: Sep 12, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 6, 2018
• Journal: Journal of military ethics
• Print ISSN: 1502-7570
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 100-121
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15027570.2016.1207453
• Keywords: Military strategy; Common good; Just war; Political philosophy; Idealism; Catholic
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/442859
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15027570.2016.1207453
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of military ethics on 30/08/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/15027570.2016.1207453
• Contract Date: Feb 6, 2018