Just War Theory and Literary Studies

“Just War Theory and Literary Studies demonstrates that things we so often understand as unreconcilable dichotomies—the state and the individual, theory and action, political strategy and a soldier’s experience—should rather be understood as yin and yang, dualities to be considered together because of, not despite, their differences. This important book brings Just War Theory into conversation with modern and contemporary war writing, and in doing so, reaffirms the importance of these humanities fields to our collective political and social lives.”

—Stacey Peebles, Marlene and David Grissom Professor of Humanities at Centre College, USA

“Just War Theory and Literary Studies is a potentially valuable teaching tool for a new generation of students in literature, philosophy, political science, and American Studies courses [ . . . ]. Works by O’Brien, Hemingway, Vonnegut, and other twentieth- and twenty-first century authors are included in the authors’ illuminating analyses of literature and Just War Theory itself.”

—Mark Heberle, Professor Emeritus of English, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, USA

This book questions when, why, and how it is just for a people to go to war, or to refrain from warring, in a post-9/11 world. To do so, it explores Just War Theory (JWT) in relationship to recent American accounts of the experience of war. The book analyses the jus ad bellum criteria of just war—right intention, legitimate authority, just cause, probability of success, and last resort—before exploring jus in bello, or the law that governs the way in which warfare is conducted. By combining just-war ethics and sustained explorations of major works of twentieth and twenty-first century American war writing, this study offers the first book-length reflection on how JWT and literary studies can inform one another fruitfully.

Ty Hawkins is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department ofEnglish at the University of Central Arkansas, USA. His previous works include Reading Vietnam Amid the War on Terror (2012).


Andrew Kim is Director of the Center for the Advancement of the Humanities and Associate Professor of Theology at Marquette University, USA. He is the author of An Introduction to Catholic Ethics since Vatican II (2015).