Reflecting on some relevant aspects of just war thinking that I mentioned in my recent contribution to Pearls and Irritations on “Why Israel’s war violates just war principles” I decided it would be worth addressing some of those issues further and also broaching some important ones that I then did not discuss. I do so partly in response to comments I’ve since received from a number of people about my earlier presentation. (more…)
Tony Coady
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Why Israel’s Gaza war violates Just War principles
Israeli defences of their current military assault on Gaza invoke various defences of it couched in moral terms that evoke the concept of a just war. What follows discusses the war and its defences from the perspective of the widely acknowledged (though often misused) theory of the just war and find that the defences offered by Israeli leaders and spokespeople fail badly. (more…)
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The Khawaja Debacle: Freedom of expression for the Boxing Day test?
Usman Khawaja played an important batting role in Australia’s recently finished demolition of Pakistan in the first Test in Perth. The ongoing controversy, however, around his writings on his cricket boots and black armband as a protest display have raised questions about the relations of sport and politics and the role of sporting and other institutions in policing what their players can or cannot do by way of using their vocational positions to promote what they believe to be pressing socio-political issues. Below I explore some of the roots of this significant dispute. (more…)
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Extremism and the sensible centre
The labelling of people as ‘extremists’ or ‘radicals’ – as abolitionists and women’s suffrage advocates were once called – is determined not by the soundness of the views expressed, but by the relative scarcity of the people expressing them in proportion to the amount of people holding different views in the ‘sensible centre’. Given the various noxious myths that have pervaded Australian politics for so many years, it is surely time for a dose of good new political radicalism. (more…)
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Australian War Crimes and the Asymmetry Myth
There is a widespread “asymmetry myth” about the perpetration war crimes that will affect the reception of the forthcoming Brereton report on alleged Australian military war crimes and what Scott Morrison predicts will be “the difficulties” it creates.