Waging War ─ A New Philosophical Introduction

There is now a major new interest in ethical issues about warfare emerging from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, conflict in Syria and Libya, the war on terror, and the introduction of new weapon systems, such as unmanned drones. In this re-written version of the author's classic text, Waging War, Ian Clark asks probing questions about how we think about war, the changes it is undergoing, and what exactly it is we wage when we wage war.

Waging War argues that much of what passes for ethical debate is actually a set of disagreements about what counts as war or not. This philosophical introduction provides a critical review of the various different ways in which the ethical debates are already framed, the questions that arise from these debates, and seeks to bring greater clarity and precision to the important moral arguments about political violence.

Ian Clark is currently Professor of International Relations at the University of Queensland and a Visiting Professor at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, NTU, Singapore. He was until 2013 E. H. Carr Professor of International Politics, Aberystwyth University. He is the author of many books on IR theory and international history, most recentlyThe Vulnerable in International Society (OUP, 2013). He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, and an Honorary Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge. He now lives in Melbourne.