Cicero, the Roman statesman and philosopher, was one of the earliest thinkers to articulate a theory of just war.

Explore the complexities of Just War Theory through the lens of the Iraq War. ... the 13th-century Italian philosopher Thomas Aquinas really set the stage for Just War Theory as we know it.

just war theory; thomas aquinas; George Weigel George Weigel is the distinguished senior fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington.

They worked in the 15th century, as tensions between Christian and Muslim kingdoms were boiling over into war, from Spain and Italy to Constantinople. ‘St. Thomas Aquinas Confounding Averroës ...

Thomas Aquinas further developed the theory, specifying conditions for a just war: fighting for a just cause, waged by a public authority and pursuing a good intention.

Massive and unusually elongated, “The Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas” depicts the 13th-century saint throned in a golden sun, with Aristotle and Plato standing reverently on either side.

As a Catholic philosopher and avid student of Aquinas, I am always fielding questions about whether this medieval saint is "still worth" reading today, nearly 800 years after his birth.