The Political Realism of Reinhold Niebuhr A Pragmatic Approach to Just War [Paperback]

Reinhold Niebuhr rose to prominenece in the 1930s and 1940s for his vociferous opposition both to Nazism and to isolationism as an American response to that threat. He rejected both pacifism and the legalism of the just war tradition. His pragmatic and realist approach to the ethics of force eschews absolute rules or restrictions. The work examines Niebuhr's consequentialist approach to ethics and war from the perspective of political theory.Acknowledgements - Introduction: Reinhold Niebuhr and Political Realism - Niebuhr's Critique of Pacifism - Force and Order - Freedom and Constraint - Morality and the State: Just War - Morality and the State: Niebuhr - Niebuhr's Ethic of International Politics - Conclusion: a Pragmatic Approach to Just War - Index