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What is War? Cicero defines war broadly as a contention by force; Hugo Grotius adds that war is the state of contending parties, considered as such; Denis Diderot comments that war is a convulsive and violent disease of the body politic; Alternatively, the Oxford Dictionary expands the definition to include any active hostility or struggle between living beings; a conflict between opposing forces or principles. The root of the English word war, werra, is Frankish-German, meaning confusion, discord, or strife An alternative definition that war is a state of organized, open-ended collective conflict or hostility. War armed conflict between states or nations (international war) or between factions within a state (civil war), prosecuted by force and having the purpose of compelling the defeated side to do the will of the victor.
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Just cause: to protect innocent life, secure basic human rights, restore secure peace. Competent authority: war must be declared/waged by legitimate governmental authority. Comparative justice: our cause must be just, and it must be worth killing for. Right intention: pursuit of peace and reconciliation, not vengeance, territory, or pride. Probability of success: Victory must be possibleif not, is it worth the bloodshed? Proportionality: the costs incurred must be proportionate to the good expected. Last resort: all peaceful alternatives must have been exhausted.
Proportionality: continuing evaluation of costs and good of war. Noncombatant immunity/discrimination: civilian populations may not be intentionally targeted or harmed; relates to treatment of prisoners of war as well.
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