PS 280 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Siege Of Melos, Reinhold Niebuhr, Jus Ad Bellum

• School: University of Illinois
• Department: Political Science
• Course: PS 280
• Professor: Vasquez John

Document Summary

Jus ad bellum: justice before the war: must be started by sovereign. Who is thomas aquinas, what is his position on just war, and why is he important historically: aquinas was a philosopher who wrote the ways a war can be moral. Aquinas wrote 3 just war (cid:396)e(cid:395)ui(cid:396)e(cid:373)e(cid:374)ts a(cid:374)d add(cid:396)essed people"s (cid:272)(cid:396)iti(cid:272)is(cid:373)s to (cid:449)a(cid:396). Be aware of at least two differe(cid:374)t (cid:449)a(cid:455)s of (cid:862)readi(cid:374)g(cid:863) (i. e. i(cid:374)terpreting) thucydides. How does the melian dialogue relate to the mytilenian debate: thucydides was a philosopher who wrote the melian dialogue. The lessons in the melian dialogue are mostly for the weak. Melian dialogue is that morality in and of itself is not sufficient against power. Another way to read the melian dialogue is to see that it is criticizing the way athens abused its power. He did not believe that just because a nation has power means they should do whatever they want, but he recognized that they could.