Reflections on “Supreme Emergency"
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Description
Toward the end of Just and Unjust Wars, Michael Walzer introduces the idea of “supreme emergency” and considers whether it might be permissible for a society desperate to avoid military defeat when the stakes are very, very high, to resort to methods of waging a war that are ordinarily forbidden. The bombing of civilian areas of German cities in the early 1940s by the British air force is sometimes cited as an example. In this chapter, I consider how best to interpret Walzer’s thinking on this subject. I consider various ways of thinking about “supreme emergency,” including the possible neutral application of the idea (so that it might be used by our enemies for example) and the question of whether the relevant stakes consist of the extinction of a society or of a whole civilization. I argue that Walzer is best understood not as proposing a modification to the laws of war. Instead he is thinking aloud—and thinking responsibly—about what happens, and about what ought to happen, when the stakes have become so high that there is a failure in the circumstances that make the ordinary restraints on fighting a war viable.
Source Publication
Walzer and War: Reading Just and Unjust Wars Today
Source Editors/Authors
Graham Parsons, Mark A. Wilson
Publication Date
2020
Recommended Citation
Waldron, Jeremy, "Reflections on “Supreme Emergency"" (2020). Faculty Chapters. 1542.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1542
