Western Just War Theory And The Pursuit Of Lasting Peace

War comes from human society. There are three major thoughts in the West onthe war, realism, pacifism and just war theory. The core propositions of realismexpress a strong suspicion about applying moral concepts and deny the possibility ofmoral judgments. It is not violence in all its forms that the most challenging kind ofpacifist objects to; rather, it is the specific kind and degree of violence that warinvolves which the pacifist objects to. Pacifists think all the violence and war is wrongand has no validity at all.Before twentieth century, Augustine, Aquinas, Grotius and Vattel have madeimportant contribution to the initiation and development of just war theory. Whenentering the twentieth century, the forms and means of the wars changed a lot withthe rapid development of modern science and technology so that human beingshave to face the threats and practices of the weapons of mass destruction, nuclearweapons and terrorism. Under these circumstances, just war theory gained thecomplement and improvement by the vital philosophers like Rawls and Walzer. Justwar theory includes three parts:1) jus ad bellum, which concerns the justice ofresorting to war in the first place;2) jus in bello, which concerns the justice ofconduct within war, after it has begun; and3) jus post bellum, which concerns thejustice of peace agreements and the termination phase of war. Nowadays, there arestill wars somewhere on the earth while the just war theory still has its limitationsand still needs further development by scholars and strategists on the themes of howto apply the just war theory during the war(s), how to overcome the limitations ofthe just war theory, etc.At the same time, the international society had been making effort to protectthe victims from the war by all the possible ways and United Nations published theResponsibility to Protect in2005World Summit Outcome. It pointed that clear andunambiguous acceptance by all governments of the collective internationalresponsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing andcrimes against humanity; Willingness to take timely and decisive collective action for this purpose, through the Security Council, when peaceful means prove inadequateand national authorities are manifestly failing to do it. It includes the responsibility ofpreventing, responding and rebuilding. Though it seems not to be the same with justwar theory, the essence of the principles of responsibility of protect has dovetailednicely with those of the just war theory, which makes it evident the just war theory’sdeep influence.However, it is far from enough if only to apply the just war theory in the war(s).As Grotius said, the end of the war should be the peace. On the recent Boao ForumFor Asia Annual Conference2013, the President of People’s Republic of China, XiJinping emphasized:“(All the countries may) work together to maintain the peace inorder to supply a security for the common development…for properly solving thedivergence and contravention and maintaining the general, related situation ofdevelopment, governments should insist the consultations and dialogues and thepeace negotiations.” To realize the peace after war, we should unveil the truth of thewar to fulfill justice, properly solve the problems produced before and during the war,and build a real, fair, and forgivable culture to resort to the reconciliation with theend of setting peace for all humans. At present, the international society continuallyexperiences the deep and complicated changes and the overall peace has not arrived.This is not only because of the various regional wars and conflicts, but because of theexistence of nuclear weapons that make people all over the world feel worried. Thecountries which have nuclear weapons issued nuclear strategies to contend againstthe deterrence from other countries which also have nuclear weapons, while thosewho don’t have nuclear yet are proactively doing the research and development ofthe nuclear weapons. All these facts make people feel all their fears and anxiety sothat cannot inspire people’s expectation to the eternal peace from inside heart out.Thus, in order to realize the eternal peace, international society should make effortto forbid and abolish all the nuclear weapons therefore to courage all human beingsto establish the faith and desire to and finally accomplish the eternal peace.