The discussion of the ethics of war goes back to the Greeks and Romans, although neither civilisation behaved particularly well in war. In the Christian tradition war ethics were developed by St Augustine, and later by St Thomas Aquinas and others. Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), a Dutch philosopher and author of De Jure Belli Ac Pacis (The Rights of War and Peace), wrote down the conditions for a just war that are accepted today.
Cicero argued that there was no acceptable reason for war outside of just vengeance or self defence - in which he included the defence of honour. He also argued that a war could not be just unless it was publicly declared and unless compensation for the enemy's offence had first been demanded. Cicero based his argument on the assumption that nature and human reason biased a society against war, and that there was a fundamental code of behaviour for nations. St Augustine was a 4th century Christian who lived in Algeria and Italy. He believed that the only just reason to go to war was the desire for peace.
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We do not seek peace in order to be at war, but we go to war that we may have peace. Be peaceful, therefore, in warring, so that you may vanquish those whom you war against, and bring them to the prosperity of peace. Augustine tried to reconcile Christian pacifism with the world as it actually was; to bring together the pacifist teachings of Jesus Christ with the obligations of Roman citizens - including Christians - to fight for their country when required to. Augustine accepted that there would always be wars. He thought that war was always a sin, and if there had to be a war, it should be waged with sadness. But Augustine said that war was always the result of sin, and that war was also the remedy for sin. And if war was the remedy for sin, then war could sometimes be justifiable - but only if it was a remedy for sin. Augustine made it clear that individuals and states (or the rulers of states) have different obligations when it came to war or violence.
He stated that Christians did not have the right to defend themselves from violence, however they could use violence if it was necessary to defend the innocent against evil.
The rulers of states, he said, had an obligation to maintain peace, and this obligation gave them the right to wage war in order to maintain peace. It also gave them the right to wage war in order to ensure justice and even impose punishment - something that would not be accepted nowadays.
A just war is wont to be described as one that avenges wrongs, when a nation or state has to be punished, for refusing to make amends for the wrongs inflicted by its subjects, or to restore what it has seized unjustly. This was because injustice was a greater evil than war, and it was proper to carry out a lesser evil if it would prevent a greater evil.
But a war is only just if those waging it do so with the intention of doing good. Punishing the enemy is not a sufficient motive on its own.True religion looks upon as peaceful those wars that are waged not for motives of aggrandisement, or cruelty, but with the object of securing peace, of punishing evil-doers, and of uplifting the good. Augustine was much less concerned with how people should be treated during a war, because to him, physical death was not a particularly important thing.
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