This course focuses on two main aspects of the history of international ethics and war: just war theory and in particular humanitarian intervention. More specifically it covers the following themes:
• Introduction to international ethics (the views against ethics and norms in international politics and the views in support of ethics and norms in international politics).
• The just war doctrine from antiquity until today, with emphasis on Aristotle, Cicero,Augustine, Aquinas, Vitoria, Gentili, Suarez and Grotius, and concluding with the situation today (Walzer).
• The roots of humanitarian intervention: just war against tyranny, with emphasis on Vitoria, Gentili, Suarez, Grotius, the monarchomachs and Bodin, and Vattel. International law: the humanitarian intervention juridical debate from the 1830 until the 1930s.
• Intervention and non-intervention in political theory during the long nineteenth century: the views of Kant, Hegel, Cobden, Mazzini and J.S. Mill.
• Case studies of humanitarian intervention in the nineteenth century: the Greeks (1821-1831), Lebanon and Syria (1860-1861), the Bulgarians (1876-1878) and the US and Cuba (1895-1898)
• Humanitarian interventions during the Cold War Humanitarian interventions during the Post-Cold War period
• Today’s humanitarian intervention controversy; the quest for the appropriate international reaction in humanitarian plights; and key issues in the recent debate on humanitarian intervention.