ABSTRACT Jus Post Bellum and Christian Perspectives on the Ethical Use of Force: Reframing the Traditional Debate Jeremy S. Stirm, Ph.D. Mentor: Paul Martens, Ph.D. This dissertation examines the potential effect of the jus post bellum (post-war justice and peace) debate on the larger just war framework in order to argue that this category has the potential to reframe the traditional debate between various Christian responses to the ethical use of force. In addition to the traditional debates between Christian realism, pacifism, and the just war tradition, there has arisen in recent decades a debate within just war circles regarding the presumption against war thesis. While the debates between these various responses to the ethical use of force have produced some beneficial effects, the contemporary debates have become increasingly partisan and stymied in a state of gridlock. I utilize the developing jus post bellum discussions as a lens through which to view anew the traditional debates and move beyond the impasse. The emphasis on the relationship of the phases of war (in bello, ad bellum, and now post bellum) that emerged from jus post bellum discussions challenges recent trends in the use of just war reasoning by both presumption against war advocates and classic just war supporters. What is more, jus post bellum discussions have given us a new way to speak meaningfully about the ethically complex notion of humanitarian intervention in the form of The Responsibility to Protect (R2P). The three pillars of R2P, the responsibility to prevent, react, and rebuild, correspond to the traditional just war categories of in bello, ad bellum, and post bellum respectively, and once again emphasize the importance of the relationship of the phases of war and a holistic just war approach. While disagreement concerning the ethical use of force persists at the ad bellum level between the just war tradition, Christian realism, and pacifism, this reality does not rule out post bellum cooperation. This project concludes with a practical application of a robust jus post bellum strategy, arguing that care for the moral injury of returning warriors provides one area of common cause for collaboration between Christian realists, pacifists, and just war supporters. Copyright © 2014 by Jeremy S. Stirm All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures viii List of Tables ix Acknowledgments x Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Prolegomena Purpose Preliminary Background Problem Plan of the Project Chapter 2 Identifying the Framework: Christian Perspectives on War and Peace 14 Introduction Christian Realism Introduction Reinhold Niebuhr’s Enduring Influence Reinhold Niebuhr and Christian Realism Pacifism Just War Tradition Conclusion Chapter 3 Iron Sharpening Iron: Christian Perspectives Interact 49 Introduction Christian Realism and Pacifism Reinhold Niebuhr’s Critique Thesis one: Gospel Thesis two: Modern Pacifism is Heretical Jesus’ Ethic Reception of Reinhold Niebuhr John Howard Yoder’s Counter-Critique Christian Realism and Just War The Jesus Ethic Pacifism and Just War Just War in Dialogue with Itself: Perilous Presumptions The Growing Debate about Presumptions v Conclusion Chapter 4 A New Arrival on the Scene: Jus Post Bellum 98 Introduction Theology’s Turn to Jus Post Bellum Michael J. Schuck Kenneth R. Himes Louis V. Iasiello Doug McCready Mark J. Allman and Tobias L. Winright Conclusion Chapter 5 Jus Post Bellum and Christian Perspectives on War and Peace: A Holistic Just War Tradition 125 Introduction Yoder’s Test for the Just War Tradition: Limiting the Instances of War Contemporary Just War Theory: Limiting the Instances of War The Classic Just War Tradition: Justifying Instances of War George Weigel and the Forgotten Just War Tradition James Turner Johnson and the Broken Just War Tradition Justifying War and the Forgotten Art of Planning for Peace Christian Realism: Critiquing the System Jus Post Bellum and the Just War Tradition Just War: A Holistic Approach Post Bellum in Context Conclusion Chapter 6 Humanitarian Intervention, the Responsibility to Protect, and Jus Post Bellum 163 Introduction Christian Realism and Jus Post Bellum Outline of the Chapter The Road to The Responsibility to Protect Reception of The Responsibility to Protect Just Peacemaking and the Responsibility to Prevent Just Policing and the Responsibility to React Jus Post Bellum Proper and the Responsibility to Rebuild Rebuilding and Jus Post Bellum Working Together: Jus Post Bellum and Returning Warriors Conclusion Chapter 7 Concluding Summary 219 vi Bibliography 223 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 6.1 Swanstrom and Weissmann on the Conflict Cycle 197 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 6.1 Stages of Conflict and Tools Available 196 ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Over the past eight years at Baylor University I have received support and encouragement from a great number of individuals. I would like to thank Dr. Paul Martens, my dissertation mentor, for encouraging me to take on this project. Your guidance has been instructive and thoughtful, and your sense of humor a good medicine for the stress that often accompanies the writing process. I would like to thank Dr. Jonathan Tran for serving on my dissertation committee. We started Baylor together, Dr. Tran as a professor and me as a student. Working as a teaching assistant for him in those early semesters was a rewarding experience. I would also like to express thanks to Dr. David Corey for serving on my dissertation committee and for introducing me to the academic study of the just war tradition. I would also like to thank Dr. Ralph Wood and Dr. Doug Weaver for serving on my dissertation committee. In addition, Lisa Long has provided valuable assistance throughout my doctoral studies and especially in the final days of dissertation preparation. Your assistance in dealing with on campus issues as I was often out of town is greatly appreciated. I would also like to express a work of thanks to all the service members I have had the opportunity and privilege to serve with in the 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and the 36th Infantry Division. My experiences in Special Forces and serving as an Army Chaplain have helped inform my theological imagination in ways I will probably never fully comprehend. De Oppresso Liber. x I would also like to thank my wife Melissa. Thank you for your constant support and encouragement over the years. You were always there to help me when I was not sure I could continue writing. To Caleb and Kamryn, I thank you for keeping me sane throughout this lengthy process and for being a constant reminder of what is truly important. Now that this dissertation has come to completion, there is only one thing left to say, “Daddy is done with his dissertation, let’s go play!” xi CHAPTER ONE Introduction 1. Prolegomena The air was crisp and cool, and the sky was clear and deep blue. It was just after dinner. I sat on the front porch drinking tea with my ODA (Operational Detachment Alpha) team commander. We were discussing the day’s events and what lay ahead for tomorrow. My team had just completed a combat tour in Afghanistan. Now we were in Uzbekistan on a training mission. Both of us were anxious to return home to our family and friends. Amidst the discussion that evening was the then possible U.S. led invasion into Iraq. Looking up at the clear night sky that evening in late March 2003, we both knew it in our gut. If we were going to invade Iraq, tonight would be the perfect night to do it. The next morning we watched the live news broadcasts of U.S. tanks advancing towards Bagdad. Our prediction was proven correct. The U.S. was now engaged in combat operations in both Afghanistan and now Iraq. Both of these wars were of course precipitated by the events of September 11, 2001. It has been over a decade since the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the failed attempt that ended in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. While questions concerning how such horrific events could transpire on U.S. soil have not totally abated, other increasingly pressing questions are persistently being asked. 1 The U.S. has pronounced an end to the war in Iraq and has subsequently executed its withdrawal of troops from Iraq and continues to contemplate an end to its presences in Afghanistan. Yet, as President Barrack Obama indicated in a speech given at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, ceremonially marking an end to the nine-year Iraq War, ending wars is an especially precarious business: “It’s harder to end a war than begin one.”1 While there are the obvious logistical, economic, and political concerns about ending wars, there are also important ethical and moral questions that need to be addressed. In recent years, the category of jus post bellum has resurfaced to address the moral considerations of post war justice and peace. While the literature on jus post bellum continues to grow within various academic fields including political philosophy, international relations, and military science,2 Christian theology, however, has been relatively slow in addressing this 3 important component of just war thought. 1 For the full text of the President’s speech, see http://www2.nbc17.com/news/2011/dec/14/complete-text-president-obamas-speech-fort-bragg-ar- 1713958/. 2 For some of the pertinent scholarship from political philosophy, see Gary J. Bass, “Jus Post Bellum,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 32, no. 4 (October 1, 2004): 384–412; Brian Orend, War and International Justice: A Kantian Perspective (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2000); Brian Orend, “Jus Post Bellum,” Journal of Social Philosophy 31, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 117–137; Brian Orend, “Justice after War,” Ethics & International Affairs 16, no.