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The Right Wrongs

From the March 2005 Print Edition

The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in the Age of Terror by Michael Ignatieff Princeton University Press, 212 pp. $22.95 Is it ever justifiable to do evil that good may come of it? Addressing the threat posed by terrorism, Michael Ignatieff answers Yes, with conditions. He argues that terrorists in . . . . Continue Reading »

Just War, As It Was and Is

From the January 2005 Print Edition

The just war tradition came into being during the Middle Ages as a way of thinking about the right use of force in the context of responsible government of the political community. With deep roots in both ancient Israel and classical Greek and Roman political thought and practice, the origins of a . . . . Continue Reading »

Jihad and Just War

From the June/July 2002 Print Edition

In February 1998, long before the September 11 terrorist attacks on America, Osama bin Laden and four other leaders of radical Islamist groups in various countries issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, calling for jihad against “the crusader-Zionist alliance” in the following language: In . . . . Continue Reading »

In Response to Terror

From the February 1999 Print Edition

In the aftermath of the United States military response to the car-bombing of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania last August, New York’s John Cardinal O’Connor drew a distinction between ad hoc, after-the-fact moral judgments about such particular responses to terrorism and a . . . . Continue Reading »