Preventive and preemptive war in Utopia, Book II.
When we saw the title of the chapter for the first time, we thought that it would deal with how Utopians prevent war, but what More is trying to say goes far away from this. In fact, the chapter is a detailed exposition of casus belli, military strategies and techniques. The meaning of Utopia is connected to America’s discovery, the world that serves as the location of fictional presentations of political ideas. At the same time, “this production means for the author to express genuine and real political views about his own circumstances” (pp. 57, The Ethics of Foreign Policy). More 's vision is not far from the traditional conventions of “just” war, but there are a few exceptions.
Utopians are presented as people who hate war because one of their peaceful nature. It is worth mentioning Erasmus of Rotterdam, who was a humanist, as he found war anti-Christian and very brutal (‘Antipolemus, or, the Plea of Reason, Religion, and Humanity against War’), as Utopians do. However, prudence leads both men and women to train in these disciplines to be ready for any case that is presented to them. There are three important reasons to go to war: to defend their country, to defend their allies or to free their nation from tyranny.
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Utopians practice two types of war:
preventive war, it is the one in which a nation attacks against a possible threat to the balance of power