Warfare Ethics in Comparative Perspective: China and the West

This volume explores East Asian intellectual traditions and their influence on contemporary discussions of the ethics of war and peace.

Through cross-cultural comparison and dialogue between East and West, this work charts a new trajectory in the development of applied ethics. A sequel to the volume Chinese Just War Ethics, it expands the range of the earlier work and includes attention to Japan and other Eastern and Western traditions for contrastive reflection and engages with the full range of Chinese intellectual traditions for comparative analysis. The book scrutinizes pioneering works such as the Mengzi, the Han Feizi, and the Seven Military Classics, investigating their influence in subsequent times. It also engages with new texts and thinkers such as the Four Books of the Yellow Emperor, Zeng Guofan, Chiang Kai-shek, and Mao Zedong, along with examining recent writings of the scholars of the People’s Liberation Army. The final section of the book identifies and discusses some emerging issues in the comparative study of military ethics, just war and peace that derive from the preceding sections. The volume editors then offer some concluding remarks at the end of the book.

This book will be of much interest to students of the ethics of war and peace, just war theory, military ethics, Asian studies and International Relations in general.

The late Sumner B. Twiss was Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Human Rights, Ethics, and Religion at Florida State University, USA, and author of many books.

Ping-cheung Lo is Dean and Rebecca Stephan Professor of Chinese Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary, USA, and author or editor of over a dozen books, in both Chinese and English.

Benedict S. B. Chan is Director of Centre for Applied Ethics and Associate Professor, Department of Religion and Philosophy, at Hong Kong Baptist University.