Overview

Limited force is different than war: different in scope, strategic purpose, and ethical permissions and restraints. No-fly zones, limited strikes, Special Forces raids, and drone strikes outside 'hot' battlefield have been at the nexus of the moral and strategic debates about just war since the fall of the Berlin Wall but, with the exception of drones, these aspects of the modern arsenal have remained largely undertheorized. Just and Unjust Uses of Limited Force fills that gap by revisiting the major wars animating contemporary just war scholarship (Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, the drone 'wars', and Libya) through the lens of limited force and drawing insights from the just war tradition. Looking at these contemporary examples, the book teases out an ethical account of force-short-of-war. It covers the deliberation about whether to use limited force (jus ad vim), restraints that govern its use (jus in vi), when to stop (jus ex vi), and the after-use context (jus post vim). While these moral categories parallel to some extent their just war counterparts of jus ad bellum, jus in bello, jus post bellum, and jus ex bello, the book illustrates how they can be reimagined and recalibrated in a limited force context, while also introducing new principles specific to the dilemmas associated with escalation and risk. As the argument unfolds, the reader will be presented with a view of limited force as a moral alternative to war, exposed to a series of dilemmas regarding when and how limited force is used, and provided with a more precise and morally enriched vocabulary to talk about limited force and the responsibilities its use entails.

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9780192897008

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Reviews

Brunstetter offers an insightful analysis of force short of war, even for those who do not accept his initial presumptions. There does not seem to be any decline in potential opportunities for limited uses of force on the horizon, making this work, and its wide distribution, all the more important. -- Paul Vicars, Baylor University, The Strategy Bridge

This book represents the culmination of nearly a decade of thinking deeply about and contributing impressively to this vital topic. * Brian Orend, University of Waterloo, Perspective on Politics * Brunstetter focuses on four kinds of limited force: drones, targeted airstrikes, no-fly zones, and small-scale interventions by special forces. These phenomena cry out for moral and political evaluation. Brunstetter, in this refreshingly ambitious book, purports to offer a full-scale theory in this regard -of the jus ad vim, where vim stands for force (short-of-war), with the whole phrase thus meaning the justice of using limited force. This book represents the culmination of nearly a decade of thinking deeply about and contributing impressively to this vital topic. * Brian Orend, University of Waterloo, Perspective on Politics * Brunstetter offers an insightful analysis of force short of war, even for those who do not accept his initial presumptions. There does not seem to be any decline in potential opportunities for limited uses of force on the horizon, making this work, and its wide distribution, all the more important. * Paul Vicars, Baylor University, The Strategy Bridge *

...read Brunstetter's excellent book and profit from its fine and principled analysis. * Brian Orend, University of Waterloo, Political Theory * This book represents the culmination of nearly a decade of thinking deeply about and contributing impressively to this vital topic. * Brian Orend, University of Waterloo, Perspective on Politics * Brunstetter focuses on four kinds of limited force: drones, targeted airstrikes, no-fly zones, and small-scale interventions by special forces. These phenomena cry out for moral and political evaluation. Brunstetter, in this refreshingly ambitious book, purports to offer a full-scale theory in this regard -of the jus ad vim, where vim stands for force (short-of-war), with the whole phrase thus meaning the justice of using limited force. This book represents the culmination of nearly a decade of thinking deeply about and contributing impressively to this vital topic. * Brian Orend, University of Waterloo, Perspective on Politics * Brunstetter offers an insightful analysis of force short of war, even for those who do not accept his initial presumptions. There does not seem to be any decline in potential opportunities for limited uses of force on the horizon, making this work, and its wide distribution, all the more important. * Paul Vicars, Baylor University, The Strategy Bridge *

Author Information

Daniel Brunstetter is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine. Daniel's work on just war thinking explores the history of the just war tradition and critically examines contemporary debates about the use of force. His works is published in Ethics & International Affairs, Journal of Military Ethics, Political Studies, Review of International Studies, International Journal of Human Rights, Peace Review and elsewhere. He is the author of Tensions of Modernity: Las Casas and His Legacy in the French Enlightenment (Routledge, 2012), and co-editor of two edited volumes that cover a variety of themes related to the ethics of war: The Ethics of War and Peace Revisited: Moral Challenges in an Era of Contested and Fragmented Sovereignty (Georgetown University Press, 2018) and Just War Thinkers: From Cicero to the 21st Century (Routledge, 2017).

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