Peace Ethics in an Age of Risk

Abstract

This article inquires into what the gospel of peace might mean for Christian theological engagement with international law and sets a provisional agenda for peace ethics in an age of global risks. Two warnings are sounded with respect to the language of ‘peace ethics’ and ‘the rule of law’. Three priorities are identified: (i) thinking with and about the global poor in ways that do not render ‘the other’ somehow different from myself; (ii) retrieval of the twin ideas of ‘naturalness’ and distributive justice in natural law reasoning as they bear upon international law and the use of force; (iii) how to conceive of international common good by considering ‘peace through law’ as a potentially subversive endeavour when employed in the service of the global poor.