Is War Ever Justifiable Essay

Is it ever justifiable to resort to war?

In this essay I will look at the question, is it ever justifiable to resort to war? I will look at both arguments for the justification of war and the arguments against. However before I do so I will explain what war is, how it happens and what types of war there is.

‘’War is a condition of armed conflict between two or more parties’’ (Heywood, 2011, p-241). Mostly, war happens between two different nations, however but frequently between two parties or groups within a nation, this is known as civil war. It is important to note that the concept of war is by no means, a new one, war is seen right down the history of humans. Obviously, the nature of war and the weapons used has changed drastically over time, due to the many advances in technology; weapons such as machine guns are only new additions to warfare having replace bows and muskets.

There are many different types of war, civil war being one. Civil war is war between an individual group and its

The just cause principle agrees that any particular country has the right to protect itself from any threat, similar to an individual. Many people argue that if an individual comes under attack, their first instincts are to self-defend. A perfect example of how this self-defence strategy has worked in the past is the six-day war in 1967, were Israel made the decision to self-defend itself from the Arab states, doing so had given Israel a huge advantage. Humanitarian intervention also falls into the category of just cause. Humanitarian intervention is where another country comes to the aid of a particular country that is under threat, such as genocide. The term defending creeps up on us again, the bases of humanitarian intervention is ‘defending’ allies. This concept is not recognised by the standard UN model as it is seen as invading another country’s political affairs and thus seen as a form of