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War Is Hell

Studies in the Right of Legitimate Violence

Charles Douglas Lummis

War is Hell is a study of the philosophy of war and peace, ranging critically from ancient peace thinking to today. The author uses a Socratic method, focused on political philosophy rather than on cultural or psychological aspects of war and peace making. The book is not a treatise on ethics, but rather an analysis of some aspects of the nature of war and peace.

This book is a study of war – and by extension, peace – from the standpoint of political theory. For all those who think there is too much war, and to deal with that we need to search for new ways of thinking.

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Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 252 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-1-5381-7420-3 • Hardback • March 2023 • $110.00 • (£85.00)
978-1-5381-7421-0 • Paperback • March 2023 • $39.00 • (£30.00)
Series: World Social Change
Subjects: Philosophy / Movements / Critical Theory, Political Science / Peace, Philosophy / Political, Political Science / History & Theory

Charles Douglas Lummis has written extensively on the topic of US foreign relations, and is a vocal critic of US foreign policy. His works include Radical Democracy, and A New Look at the Chrysanthemum and the Sword.

Susan Sontaghas called Lummis "one of the most thoughtful, honorable, and relevant intellectuals writing about democratic practice anywhere in the world,"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Lummis while Karel van Wolferenhas referred to him as an "eminent observer of the American-Japanese vassalage relationship.”

Preface/ Acknowledgements

Introduction: Hell

Chapter 1: Peace as The Original Position

The Original Position

The Right to Make Promises

The Peaceful Village

The Village (2): Enter the Robber Band

The Peace in Daily Life

notes

Chapter 2: The Violent State

The Oxymoronic State

The Magical State

Legitimate Violence: The Hypothesis

Legitimate Violence: The Grand Experiment

The Phenomenon of Violence

The State as Blob

Max Weber and the Evil Moment of the State

notes

Chapter 3: Godlike Violence

Why Gods Can’t be Heroes

Holy War

The Gods vs God

The Innocent Warrior

Chapter 4: Distance and Distance Collapse

The Art of Distancing

Overcoming the Fear of Killing

What Drill Instructors Teach

Together in the Bomb Shelter

Nativity in the War Zone

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

The Enemy Most Dear to You

Heraclesian Syndrome

“Or Has the Blood of Those You’ve Slain Made You Mad?”

notes

Chapter 5: (Just) War is Hell, Part I

“Violence Pushed to its Utmost Bounds”

The Duel

Agincourt: The Duel Writ Large

Rape and Pillage

Hell according to Thomas

“Castles and Girls/We’ll Breach Their Defenses”

notes

Chapter 6: A Container for a Universal Solvent: (Just) War is Hell, Part II

Rules for Justly Initiating Hell: Jus ad Bellum

Rules for Keeping Hell Just and Orderly: Jus in Bello

Rat-a-tat-tat

Bombs Away!

Rules for Just Bombing

Absolute Just War

Chapter 7: The Ecstasy of War?

The Pleasure of Facing Danger

The Pleasure of Looting

Vicarious Pleasure

War as Romance

War as Provider of “Meaning”

War as Historic Spectacle

The Pleasure of Meaninglessness

War as a State of Exception

The Three Phases of War

Thanatopia

notes

Chapter 8: SuperLeviathan: A Peaceful Use of Hell?

The Articles of Confederation Analogy

Planning Perpetual Peace

Peaceful Republics?

Who Will Watch the Watchers?

As If

Peace Proposals After World War I

Peace Through the Plighted Word

The 15 Democracies as SuperLeviathan

“Let Us Precipitate Unification Through Conquest”

Muddling War and Police Action

The United Nations and the Return of the 15 Democracies

Peace With a Nuclear Arsenal

“There Will No Longer Be Any Wars. Then, Only Executions Will Exist”

notes

Chapter 9: SuperLeviathan Now

The United Nations as Sheriff’s Posse

Responsibility to Protect (R2P)

The War Against Terror

Military Action and Police Action: Muddled Again

The Terrorist as a New Legal Category

Creeping Internationalism?

Chapter 10: Japan’s Impossible Constitution

The 1960 AMPO Generation

1982: Constitution as Travelogue

A Constitution as a Seizure of Power

The US Constitution: Seizing Power from the States

The Japanese Constitution: Seizing Power from the Government

Limiting the Power of the Emperor

The Role of the Allied Military Forces

The Role of the People’s Voice

Basking in the Atomic Sunshine

Good Cop, Bad Cop

Notes

Chapter 11: Article 9 Meets Humpty Dumpty

The Reverse Course

Legitimation Through Struggle

The Constitution and its Speaker

Structural Popular Sovereignty

Amendment by Interpretation: Enter Humpty Dumpty

SDF on Peace-Keeping Duty

Secret Japanese Participation in the Korean War

Abe Shinzo’s Final “Interpretation”

Article 9 as US Grand Strategy: Role of Okinawa

“A Person Able to Return the Gaze of the State”

The Citizen

Japanese Constitution as Radical Democracy

The Voiceless Voices

Article 9 as Decadence?

A Conscientious Objector Country?

A Perfect Muddle

notes

Chapter 12: Common Sense Peace

Violence and Power

Gandhi Refuted with a Platitude

Arendt on Non-Violent Resistance

You Can’t Get There from Here

Gandhi and the Founding of the Violent State

Gandhi and Power

Gandhi and the Ethic of Consequences

Non-Violence for the Ordinary People

Gandhi and Constitutions

Non-Cooperation

Inventor of the Self-limiting Revolution

Satyagraha and the Right of Belligerency

Gandhian Constitution for a Free India

Gandhi and the Art of the Possible

Hobbesean War, Radical Peace

The Last Constitution

Founding and Sacrifice

Notes

Chapter 13: Final Rumination

Peace as the Human Thing

The What-If Game

Nothing Always Works

But War is Always Hell, Even If it “Works”

Tragedy and Prophecy

notes

Appendix

Index

Against the Hobbesian view that war is the original state of nature, Lummis argues in this provocative study of war that peace is the ordinary state of affairs for human beings, that violence is violence, and that the right of legitimate violence is “modern warfare’s grand enabling clause” (p. xiii). Historically grounded discussions fill in this framework, with attention given to a variety of war-related topics: the role of religion, the meaning of just war, the dehumanization of enemies, the role that rape and pillage play in gendered warfare, and post-traumatic syndrome as a consequence of authorized killing. In conversation with Aquinas, Machiavelli, Weber, and Arendt, Lummis offers an in-depth discussion of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which banned the right of belligerency, and then concludes with a discussion of Gandhi's vision of a radically different political configuration able to generate power and build community through nonviolent noncooperation. Lummis contends that the turn away from war requires collective action that withdraws consent to the right of belligerency. This well-researched, challenging, and original work should be of interest to students of history, international relations, political science, and ethics. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.


— Choice Reviews


War Is Hell is scholarly, well founded and illuminating. Very original and stimulating, which is characteristic of Doug Lummis.


— Shin Chiba, International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan


Lummis' masterful combination of scholarship, grace, passion, and common sense gives us new ways of thinking about war and peace.


— Frank Bardacke


"I've followed Charles Douglas Lummis' peace activism and anti-war analyses for years. "War is Hell" in the culmination of his exceptional experience and knowledge. From Dante and Hobbes to Arendt and Walzer, from the scorched earth of Atlanta to the ashes of Tokyo, this book takes us on an intellectual and political journey that energizes us to think tougher thoughts about building peace."


— Cynthia Enloe, Author of The Big Push: Exposing and Challenging Persistent Patriarchy


3/14/24, Choice: This title was included in the “Editors’ Picks for March 2024” roundup.

Link: https://www.choice360.org/choice-pick/editors-picks-for-march-2024/



War Is Hell

Studies in the Right of Legitimate Violence

Cover Image
Hardback
Paperback
Summary
Summary
  • War is Hell is a study of the philosophy of war and peace, ranging critically from ancient peace thinking to today. The author uses a Socratic method, focused on political philosophy rather than on cultural or psychological aspects of war and peace making. The book is not a treatise on ethics, but rather an analysis of some aspects of the nature of war and peace.

    This book is a study of war – and by extension, peace – from the standpoint of political theory. For all those who think there is too much war, and to deal with that we need to search for new ways of thinking.

Details
Details
  • Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
    Pages: 252 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
    978-1-5381-7420-3 • Hardback • March 2023 • $110.00 • (£85.00)
    978-1-5381-7421-0 • Paperback • March 2023 • $39.00 • (£30.00)
    Series: World Social Change
    Subjects: Philosophy / Movements / Critical Theory, Political Science / Peace, Philosophy / Political, Political Science / History & Theory
Author
Author
  • Charles Douglas Lummis has written extensively on the topic of US foreign relations, and is a vocal critic of US foreign policy. His works include Radical Democracy, and A New Look at the Chrysanthemum and the Sword.

    Susan Sontaghas called Lummis "one of the most thoughtful, honorable, and relevant intellectuals writing about democratic practice anywhere in the world,"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Lummis while Karel van Wolferenhas referred to him as an "eminent observer of the American-Japanese vassalage relationship.”

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Preface/ Acknowledgements

    Introduction: Hell

    Chapter 1: Peace as The Original Position

    The Original Position

    The Right to Make Promises

    The Peaceful Village

    The Village (2): Enter the Robber Band

    The Peace in Daily Life

    notes

    Chapter 2: The Violent State

    The Oxymoronic State

    The Magical State

    Legitimate Violence: The Hypothesis

    Legitimate Violence: The Grand Experiment

    The Phenomenon of Violence

    The State as Blob

    Max Weber and the Evil Moment of the State

    notes

    Chapter 3: Godlike Violence

    Why Gods Can’t be Heroes

    Holy War

    The Gods vs God

    The Innocent Warrior

    Chapter 4: Distance and Distance Collapse

    The Art of Distancing

    Overcoming the Fear of Killing

    What Drill Instructors Teach

    Together in the Bomb Shelter

    Nativity in the War Zone

    Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

    The Enemy Most Dear to You

    Heraclesian Syndrome

    “Or Has the Blood of Those You’ve Slain Made You Mad?”

    notes

    Chapter 5: (Just) War is Hell, Part I

    “Violence Pushed to its Utmost Bounds”

    The Duel

    Agincourt: The Duel Writ Large

    Rape and Pillage

    Hell according to Thomas

    “Castles and Girls/We’ll Breach Their Defenses”

    notes

    Chapter 6: A Container for a Universal Solvent: (Just) War is Hell, Part II

    Rules for Justly Initiating Hell: Jus ad Bellum

    Rules for Keeping Hell Just and Orderly: Jus in Bello

    Rat-a-tat-tat

    Bombs Away!

    Rules for Just Bombing

    Absolute Just War

    Chapter 7: The Ecstasy of War?

    The Pleasure of Facing Danger

    The Pleasure of Looting

    Vicarious Pleasure

    War as Romance

    War as Provider of “Meaning”

    War as Historic Spectacle

    The Pleasure of Meaninglessness

    War as a State of Exception

    The Three Phases of War

    Thanatopia

    notes

    Chapter 8: SuperLeviathan: A Peaceful Use of Hell?

    The Articles of Confederation Analogy

    Planning Perpetual Peace

    Peaceful Republics?

    Who Will Watch the Watchers?

    As If

    Peace Proposals After World War I

    Peace Through the Plighted Word

    The 15 Democracies as SuperLeviathan

    “Let Us Precipitate Unification Through Conquest”

    Muddling War and Police Action

    The United Nations and the Return of the 15 Democracies

    Peace With a Nuclear Arsenal

    “There Will No Longer Be Any Wars. Then, Only Executions Will Exist”

    notes

    Chapter 9: SuperLeviathan Now

    The United Nations as Sheriff’s Posse

    Responsibility to Protect (R2P)

    The War Against Terror

    Military Action and Police Action: Muddled Again

    The Terrorist as a New Legal Category

    Creeping Internationalism?

    Chapter 10: Japan’s Impossible Constitution

    The 1960 AMPO Generation

    1982: Constitution as Travelogue

    A Constitution as a Seizure of Power

    The US Constitution: Seizing Power from the States

    The Japanese Constitution: Seizing Power from the Government

    Limiting the Power of the Emperor

    The Role of the Allied Military Forces

    The Role of the People’s Voice

    Basking in the Atomic Sunshine

    Good Cop, Bad Cop

    Notes

    Chapter 11: Article 9 Meets Humpty Dumpty

    The Reverse Course

    Legitimation Through Struggle

    The Constitution and its Speaker

    Structural Popular Sovereignty

    Amendment by Interpretation: Enter Humpty Dumpty

    SDF on Peace-Keeping Duty

    Secret Japanese Participation in the Korean War

    Abe Shinzo’s Final “Interpretation”

    Article 9 as US Grand Strategy: Role of Okinawa

    “A Person Able to Return the Gaze of the State”

    The Citizen

    Japanese Constitution as Radical Democracy

    The Voiceless Voices

    Article 9 as Decadence?

    A Conscientious Objector Country?

    A Perfect Muddle

    notes

    Chapter 12: Common Sense Peace

    Violence and Power

    Gandhi Refuted with a Platitude

    Arendt on Non-Violent Resistance

    You Can’t Get There from Here

    Gandhi and the Founding of the Violent State

    Gandhi and Power

    Gandhi and the Ethic of Consequences

    Non-Violence for the Ordinary People

    Gandhi and Constitutions

    Non-Cooperation

    Inventor of the Self-limiting Revolution

    Satyagraha and the Right of Belligerency

    Gandhian Constitution for a Free India

    Gandhi and the Art of the Possible

    Hobbesean War, Radical Peace

    The Last Constitution

    Founding and Sacrifice

    Notes

    Chapter 13: Final Rumination

    Peace as the Human Thing

    The What-If Game

    Nothing Always Works

    But War is Always Hell, Even If it “Works”

    Tragedy and Prophecy

    notes

    Appendix

    Index

Reviews
Reviews
  • Against the Hobbesian view that war is the original state of nature, Lummis argues in this provocative study of war that peace is the ordinary state of affairs for human beings, that violence is violence, and that the right of legitimate violence is “modern warfare’s grand enabling clause” (p. xiii). Historically grounded discussions fill in this framework, with attention given to a variety of war-related topics: the role of religion, the meaning of just war, the dehumanization of enemies, the role that rape and pillage play in gendered warfare, and post-traumatic syndrome as a consequence of authorized killing. In conversation with Aquinas, Machiavelli, Weber, and Arendt, Lummis offers an in-depth discussion of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which banned the right of belligerency, and then concludes with a discussion of Gandhi's vision of a radically different political configuration able to generate power and build community through nonviolent noncooperation. Lummis contends that the turn away from war requires collective action that withdraws consent to the right of belligerency. This well-researched, challenging, and original work should be of interest to students of history, international relations, political science, and ethics. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.


    — Choice Reviews


    War Is Hell is scholarly, well founded and illuminating. Very original and stimulating, which is characteristic of Doug Lummis.


    — Shin Chiba, International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan


    Lummis' masterful combination of scholarship, grace, passion, and common sense gives us new ways of thinking about war and peace.


    — Frank Bardacke


    "I've followed Charles Douglas Lummis' peace activism and anti-war analyses for years. "War is Hell" in the culmination of his exceptional experience and knowledge. From Dante and Hobbes to Arendt and Walzer, from the scorched earth of Atlanta to the ashes of Tokyo, this book takes us on an intellectual and political journey that energizes us to think tougher thoughts about building peace."


    — Cynthia Enloe, Author of The Big Push: Exposing and Challenging Persistent Patriarchy


Features
Features
  • 3/14/24, Choice: This title was included in the “Editors’ Picks for March 2024” roundup.

    Link: https://www.choice360.org/choice-pick/editors-picks-for-march-2024/



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