Date of Award

4-2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2017.

Degree Name

Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL)

Director

William O'Neill

Abstract

The following study investigates developments in the Just Policing ethics of Professor Gerald W. Schlabach, so as to contribute to the foundations of a new paradigm of the social ethics of war and peace. Traditional categories of the Just War Doctrine and Pacifism do not necessarily provide an adequate moral framework for critiquing the complexities of modern warfare in the 21st Century and call for a new synthesis. The principles provided by Schlabach in Just Policing provide a hermeneutical key in developing a global social ethics for humanitarian military intervention and even provide ethical foundations for the abolishment of war in the future. The thesis of this study is that Just Policing ethics provides a rapprochement between the Just War tradition and the Pacifist tradition. It breaches a centuries-old impasse between the two positions and contributes to the social ethics of war and peace today. The principles contained in this study help inform U.S. foreign policy and military ethics in the 21st Century. The study examines the early foundations of Just Policing, responses to it, Schlabach’s replies as a maturing process, and eventual evolution of Just Policing as a model that can even replace the Just War Doctrine.

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