Thursday, September 2, 2010

"First Strike"

New from Yale University Press: First Strike: America, Terrorism, and Moral Tradition by Mark Totten.

About the book, from the publisher:
Can the use of force first against a less-than-imminent threat be both morally acceptable and consistent with American values? In this timely book Mark Totten offers the first in-depth, historical examination of the use of preemptive and preventive force through the lens of the just war tradition.

Although critical of the American incursion into Iraq as a so-called “preemptive war,” Totten argues that the new terrorist threat nonetheless demands careful consideration of when the first use of force is legitimate. The moral tradition, he concludes, provides a principled way forward that reconciles American values and the demands of security.