{"product_id":"origins-of-the-just-war-9780691171890","title":"Origins of the Just War","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA groundbreaking\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e history of the ethics of war in the ancient Near East\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eOrigins of the Just War\u003c\/i\u003e reveals the incredible richness and complexity of ethical thought about war in the three millennia preceding the Greco-Roman period, establishing the extent to which ancient just war thought prefigured much of what we now consider to be the building blocks of the Western just war tradition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this incisive and elegantly written book, Rory Cox traces the earliest ideas concerning the complex relationship between war, ethics and justice. Excavating the ethical thought of three ancient Near Eastern cultures—Egyptian, Hittite and Israelite—he demonstrates that the history of the just war is considerably more ancient and geographically diffuse than previously assumed. Cox shows how the emergence of just war thought was grounded in a desire to rationalise, sacralise and ultimately to legitimise the violence of war. Rather than restraining or condemning warfare, the earliest ethical thought about war reflected an urge to justify state violence. Cox terms this presumption in favour of war \u003ci\u003eius pro bello\u003c\/i\u003e—the “right for war”—characterizing it as a meeting point of both abstract and pragmatic concerns.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDrawing on a diverse range of ancient sources, \u003ci\u003eOrigins of the Just War\u003c\/i\u003e argues that the same imperative still underlies many of the assumptions of contemporary just war thought and highlights the risks of applying moral absolutism to the fraught ethical arena of war.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rory Cox","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42960210296950,"sku":"9780691171890","price":45.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0671\/1374\/6550\/files\/CoreSourceHub_74d52732-0b83-423d-afad-8a29d679b7db.jpg?v=1767796393","url":"https:\/\/ingramacademic.com\/products\/origins-of-the-just-war-9780691171890","provider":"Ingram Academic \u0026 Professional","version":"1.0","type":"link"}