Political science
Topic: Writer’s choice
instructions uploaded
War, Empire and Ethics
Study Guide
The following is a comprehensive list of questions. Write at least two double-spaced pages on each question.
1. The movie Battle of Algiers seems to support the use of terror for the end of self-government and freedom. Compare the Algerian point of view in the movie to Walzer’s critique of terrorism. Finally, with whom would Kant agree, the Algerians, Walzer or neither? Would he think that terrorism is justified for the purposes of establishing republican states?
2. Consider the differences and similarities between the various forms of realism that you have encountered among thinkers. Thucydides, Hobbes, Kaplan, and Montesquieu are all in the realist camp. What makes them all realists, and can you discern any differences among them?
3. Walzer, Vitoria and Kant are all idealists (at least in the sense that they are not realists). What does it mean that they are idealists? What do they all have in common? And how to do they differ from one another?
4. Is just war theory a thing of the past? Is there any moral authority to be derived from it these days, considering all of the challenges it faces? Here are some challenges to consider: There is no presumed universal morality among states; if not the waning of the nation-state, then there is at least the challenge of non-state actors who employ tactics of asymmetrical warfare; and the existence of and reliance on powerful weapons that don’t discriminate, or, conversely, discriminating weapons like drones that aren’t subject to public scrutiny. Use at least two authors studied in this course to discuss this question. Kaplan, Walzer, Kant
