Moral Victories: The Ethics of Winning Wars

What does it mean to win a moral victory? A host of scholars and soldiers, including Augustine, Cicero, Clausewitz, Napoleon, and MacArthur have claimed that victory is the very object of war. Yet what victory means, and what might render it moral, have always been problematic and may well have become unsustainable in today’s security environment. This book examines how we can discern a just from an unjust victory, how best to balance the duty to fight justly with the obligation to win, and what the changing nature of war means for moral judgment. The wide-ranging collection of essays covers the intellectual and historical traditions of victory as well as the contemporary challenges it poses in light of changing ways of war. It will be of interest to military professionals and political practitioners as well as those interested in strategy, the just war tradition, international relations, and security.