The Just War Tradition and the Moral Character of Nuclear Deterrence

The paper begins with a brief conceptualization of deterrence as a category of state institutionalized threats which are characterized by the risk of use of nuclear weapons. Using this as justification, it continues with a discussion of the principles of thejust war tradition and, in the third section, examines a specific attempt to describe an alternative, more morally acceptable, structure of deterrence. The shortcomings of this attempt provide the springboard for a discussion of an alternative conceptualization of deterrence which moves beyond the bounds of the tradition's obsession with intent as the source of ethical evaluations of deterrence. The philosophical limits of the tradition, particularly its lack of a theory of rights, are finally discussed.