The Conduct of Just and Limited War

Abstract

In an age of increasing world tension and sporadic outbreaks of international violence, William V. O'Brien's The Conduct of Just and Limited War is a timely reappraisal of war. O'Brien fills a void in just-war literature, summarizing modern just-war and limited-war theories and applying them to analyses of Korean and Vietnam wars.' Additionally, O'Brien suggests ways in which theory can be transformed into policy initiatives to shape dimensions of future wars. O'Brien opens his inquiry by suggesting that any realistic analysis of war must conclude that recourse to armed coercion is a perennial feature of human condition (p. 2).2 He views war as continuation of politics by other means and seeks to fixld ways to limit and contain it (p. 3).3 He then moves beyond abundant literature on subject4 and brings together separate theories of just war and war to show their complementary nature. O'Brien asserts that the single, underlying requirement for conduct of just war is that such war must be limited (p. 38). These interrelated

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