Jus ad Bellum and Jus in Bello: Changing Concepts of Military Ethics and International Law

Contemporary conflicts are inherently complex; unconstrained by geography, and with amultitude of actors, an asymmetric morality exists between belligerents. Within this changingcontext the validity of the ‘just war’ theory has been questioned. This paper examines the justwar theory with a view to determining its validity to modern-day realities. It demonstrates thatthe tradition has the potential to evolve and that the concepts of proportionality and distinctionremain central. It explores the conceptual and practical difficulties of distinguishing betweencombatants and non-combatants, and demonstrates that the relevance of the just war theory liesin grasping the underlying fundamentals and applying them appropriately.