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The concept ‘Just War’ is one of the problematic concepts in politics, international relations and contemporary security studies. Simply put, the question about just wars is problematic in terms of the feasibility of wars that humanity has been witnessing for such a lengthy period of time. It is an ethical problem albeit academic. Some leading questions remain unanswered. Does just war exist? Can war be morally justified? These questions are as old as the wars which are fueled by the conflict of material and symbolic interests ever existing among human beings. The answer to such questions draws on special principles and standards, not norms or legal rules that are binding to the parties, which make up a code of ethics of war and peace, setting the tone for the pre-stage and post-stage of war and controlling the war machine while in full swing.
Michael Walzer, American Philosopher, is perhaps the first to have discussed the foregoing topic from a purely academic point of view in his book Just and Unjust Wars. Walzer well explains the differences between a just war and an unjust war based on specific theoretical criteria. In the subsequent sections, we will provide an outline and overview of the thesis – Just War Theory and Non-State Actors – submitted by Eric Edwin Smith at Auburn University, Alabama, USA, and will conduct in-depth analyses and insightful reading.