Cross, Crescent, and Sword: The Justification and Limitation of War in Western and Islamic Tradition

This book, together with its companion volume, Just War and Jihad - Historical and Theoretical Perspectives on War and Peace in Western and Islamic Traditions , examines the topics of the relationship between Western and Islamic religious and cultural traditions on war, peace, and the conduct of statecraft. The ten essays contained here provide scholarly analyses and interpretations of Islamic traditions and of areas of relationship and commonality between these traditions and those of the West. The diffilculties inherent in such analysis are compounded by the lack of correspondence between the two religious and cultural traditions, particularly those concerned with defining when war is justified and what limits ought to be observed in justified warfare. The first four essays assess justifications for war and retraints on its conduct, including a discussion of the concept of Jihad . Two additional groups of essays address specific questions that are especially pressing in the current historical context. The nine chapters range braodly over the historical development of the two traditions, seeking individually and collectively to open up the unfamiliar and to bring elements of the two traditions to bear on contemporary moral problems of armed violence and war.