The Ethics of the Alternatives to War

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It is widely held that war should be eschewed and nonviolent alternatives should be pursued instead. For instance, various pacifist approaches reject the moral permissibility of war and Just War Theorists assert that, if war is to be morally justified, reasonable alternatives to war need to be pursued (the principle of last resort) and war must do more good than harm compared to the alternatives (the principle of proportionality). However, there tends to be a lack of systematic ethical analysis of the issues surrounding each of the alternatives, as well as the alternatives as whole. Although there has been significant empirical analysis of some of the potential alternatives, these have not considered in detail the relevant moral issues. Accordingly, the Fellowship will be used to develop a research project on the ethical issues surrounding the alternatives to war. It will focus specifically on economic sanctions, diplomacy, peace operations, nonviolent resistance, disarmament, and arming rebels. It will ultimately lead to a book (provisionally entitled 'Just and Unjust Alternatives to War') and two journal articles, as well as a research network. It will develop a normative framework on the alternatives the war and two central themes: first, the reasons to pursue the alternatives to war are generally much weightier than the reasons to pursue war because, for instance, of duties to contribute to peaceful international norms; second, wars may nevertheless be permissible sometimes because the alternatives face notable, additional problems of their own. My work during the Fellowship will answer the following questions: - What are the particular ethical issues surrounding each of the alternatives? - Does an analysis of the alternatives to war strengthen the case for 'revisionist' Just War Theory (which focuses more on individual culpability or responsibility for posing an unjust threat in war), 'collectivist' Just War Theory (which focuses more on states, collectives, and the conventional rules of war), or pacifism? - How should the Just War requirements of last resort and proportionality be understood? - What institutional reforms are necessary to be able to pursue the alternatives in the most morally justifiable manner? The Fellowship generally will be very important for my developing my leadership skills. It will strengthen my experience of knowledge exchange and public engagement, with the aim of developing the skills necessary to achieve substantial and clear impacts on policy, and will lead to the development of a new network on the alternatives to war.