When philosophers join the kill chain

Scholars have always loved war, whether it's chemists and engineers discovering more efficient ways to kill large numbers of people or social scientists, theologians and philosophers debating when, why and how to fight. Philosophers in particular have long thought about violence; Plato was likely not the first thinker to understand that what goes by the name of "justice" is often merely the violence and thievery practiced by those holding the reins of power. For Plato, their ability to continue to rule depended on imposing upon the weak the very rules they routinely break to maintain their position.

Plato argued that a well-functioning society could exist only in so far as philosophers and warriors were its "guardians" (the latter under the former's watchful gaze). To ensure justice prevailed under this system, the guardians would live in poverty and share all their possessions in common, even their children.

Sadly - at least for some philosophers - society hasn't progressed in quite the way Plato had hoped.

War, drones and justice

Most philosophers today accept the argument by the seminal inter-war philosopher Walter Benjamin that violence cannot be understood or judged except "in its relation to law and justice". Arguments about whether a war or the means with which it's fought are "just" in the past century have been increasingly grounded in international law, particularly international humanitarian law and the imperative of protecting civilians who are inevitably caught in the crossfire of conflicts, whether civil or international.

While there are certainly many conservative philosophers who write prolifically in support of their definitions of "just war" (the philosophical underpinnings of President Bush's idea of "preemptive war" is among the most recent examples of thisoeuvre), the profession as a whole can be said to skew towards a more anti-war sentiment. This view is epitomised by a 2003 statement released by members of the American Philosophical Association against the US invasion of Iraq. It argued that launching a preemptive war without the threat of an imminent attack "stretches the meaning of preemption beyond reasonable bounds and sets a dangerous precedent which other states may feel free to follow".


Today, the most vehement debates surrounding the use of force by the United States no longer surround the invasion and occupation of Iraq, but rather the use of remotely piloted aerial vehicles - more commonly known as "drones" - by the US, as one of the most important weapons in its ongoing war on terror. The use of drones has caused an uproar not just in countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and the occupied territories, where they are routinely used to kill suspected militants, but also among ethicists and the international legal community.

And now, at least one philosopher, Bradley Jay Strawser, has taken up the challenge of offering a viable justification for the use of drones. A recent hire at the Naval Postgraduate School, his arguments have caused enough of a stir to warrant a profile and opinion piece in the Guardian. Strawser now claims that the Guardian profile in fact misrepresented some of his views; but after reading two of his published papers on the subject, the profile in fact underplays the glaring problems in his arguments. When applied to US policy more broadly, they reveal just how far into a moral and ethical quagmire the United States has sunk under the Bush and Obama administrations. More