acting in a truly defensive capacity, rather than engaging in military adventurism on the pretext of self-defence. V. CONCLUSIONJust war theory is an attempt to think morally about war. The theorists who have recognised and shaped just war theory throughout Western civilisation have included both secular and religious writers, including some of the greatest names of Western philosophy and legal theory. Just war theory has been recognised and used widely in the 20th century in an attempt to limit the horrors of war, and has been incorporated into international law through the United Nations Charter, and the Nuremberg Charter. Generally construed, just war theory consists of two basic categories: jus ad bellum and jus in bello. Endnotes 1. James Turner Johnson, "Just War Tradition and Low-Intensity Conflict" in Legal and Moral Constraints on Low-Intensity Conflict, 147, 148 (Alberto R. Coll, et al. eds. 1995). 2. Examples of the efforts of the international community to limit warfare are quite extensive, and stretch back well into the Middle Ages. As Judith Gail Gardam points out in her article Proportionality and Force in International Law, 87 Am. J. Int'l L. 391, 395 (1993), the Catholic Church was active in the Middle Ages in limiting warfare, as seen by the Second Lateran Council's prohibition in 1139 of the use of crossbows, bows and arrows, and siege weapons in conflicts between Christian nations. 3. Johnson at 148. 4. The widespread use of just war theory by both Western countries an...
