Just War Theory and Literary Studies

This book questions when, why, and how it is just for a people to go to war, or to refrain from warring, in a post-9/11 world. To do so, it explores Just War Theory (JWT) in relationship to recent American accounts of the experience of war. The book analyses the jus ad bellum criteria of just war—right intention, legitimate authority, just cause, probability of success, and last resort—before exploring jus in bello, or the law that governs the way in which warfare is conducted. By combining just-war ethics and sustained explorations of major works of twentieth and twenty-first century American war writing, this study offers the first book-length reflection on how JWT and literary studies can inform one another fruitfully.

“This book's careful and attentive reading of American literature, spanning seventy-five years and four major wars, revives the discussion of JWT, and elucidates … . Clearly written, with concrete examples with contemporary relevance, Just War Theory and Literary Studies will generously reward anyone interested in contemplating war, peace, and human flourishing in our time.” (Kimberly K. Dougherty, Christianity & Literature, Vol. 72 (4), December, 2023)

“Just War Theory and Literary Studies demonstrates that things we so often understand as unreconcilable dichotomies--the state and the individual, theory and action, political strategy and a soldier's experience--should rather be understood as yin and yang, dualities to be considered together because of, not despite, their differences. This important book brings Just War Theory into conversation with modern and contemporary war writing, and in doing so, reaffirms the importance of these humanities fields to our collective political and social lives.”  

—Stacey Peebles, Marlene and David Grissom Professor of Humanities at Centre College, USA, and author of Welcome to the Suck: Narrating the American Soldier's Experience in Iraq (2011).

 “Ty Hawkins and Andrew Kim have provided a timely and valuable study of a distinctively American political, ethical, and social challenge: the economic and cultural militarization of a society that has been fighting limited and inconclusive or unsuccessful wars over the last 70 years with decreasing public involvement or interest. Because our wars without end involve issues crucial to the present and future welfare of a democratic republic that is increasingly coming apart, Just War Theory and Literary Studies is a potentially valuable teaching tool for a new generation of students in literature, philosophy, political science, and American Studies courses who will need to meet that challenge. Works by O’Brien, Hemingway, Vonnegut, and other twentieth and twenty-first century authors are included in the authors’ illuminating analyses of literature and just war theory itself.”

—Mark Heberle, Professor Emeritus of English, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, USA.

"Making a powerful case for the study of JWT in the humanities, Hawkins and Kim offer here a timely and necessary contribution to philosophical, theological, and literary study. Approaching the tenets of Just War Theory through a selection of well-known American war texts, the authors examine the principles on which the US believes itself to go to war, identify how the nation falls short of its ideals, and suggest a path for just warring in an age of limited war." 

—Jennifer Haytock, Professor of English, SUNY-Brockport and editor of War and American Literature (2021)

Ty Hawkins is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of English at the University of Central Arkansas, USA. His previous works include Reading Vietnam Amid the War on Terror (2012).

Andrew Kim is Director of the Center for the Advancement of the Humanities and Associate Professor of Theology at Marquette University, USA. He is the author of An Introduction to Catholic Ethics since Vatican II (2015).