Jean Bethke Elshtain's Just War Against Terror: A Tale of Two Cities

Jean Bethke's Elshtain's Just War Against Terror provoked a heated response upon its publication in 2003. The book aroused controversy by the manner in which it drew upon Augustinian just war thought as a source of support for the US-led `War on Terror'. Many scholars were especially aggrieved by Professor Elshtain's backing for the Bush administration and, in the later 2004 edition, the invasion of Iraq. This article questions the tension between Professor Elshtain's Augustinian political theology and her willingness to countenance a far-reaching jus ad bellum which would allow powerful states like the US greater licence to wage humanitarian wars. By way of conclusion, a critique of Professor Elshtain's conception of the just war tradition is offered.