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Terrorism and National Security

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2009

Martin Hughes
Martin Hughes
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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Extract

It is necessary that, if the world is divided into nations, conflicts should arise in which there is no strong argument against terrorism or repression. By a strong argument I mean one that would sway all minds not blindly partisan, without moral commitments that are unusual or outlandish in the modern world and with as much aversion to violence as most people have. So I do not here consider, because it is unusual, heroic and absolute pacifism, much as I respect it; on the other hand I do mention Christian moral objections applying specially to terrorism because it seems somewhat outlandish even now to ignore the Christian element in our tradition.

Type
Articles
Information
Philosophy , Volume 57 , Issue 219 , January 1982 , pp. 5 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1982

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References

1 Paskins, B. and Dockrill, M., The Ethics of War (London: Duckworth, 1979), pp. 86ff.Google Scholar

2 For the most part I refer only to the best-known general ideas of Leviathan, going for detail only to the Review and Conclusion [Lev. Rev. Cone.] and to chapters VI and XV of the main text.

3 Machiavelli, Discourses I, 26. Brown, Dr G. drew my attention to this passageGoogle Scholar

4 See The Times (London, 15 April 1972), p. 2. Most of Mr Whitelaw's remarks were much more perceptive.Google Scholar

5 M., Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars (London: Allen Lane, 1978).Google Scholar

6 On Ireland I have consulted, among others, Robert, Kee, The Green Banner (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1972); C. Townshend, Britain's Campaign in Ireland 1919–1921 (London: Oxford University Press, 1975); U. O'Connor, A Terrible Beauty is Born (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1975); B. Inglis, The Story of Ireland (London: Faber and Faber, 1956). Also Dervla Murphy's magnificent A Place Apart ( 1978).Google Scholar

7 It claims to be the legitimate constitution of Ireland: it superseded a document which distinguished North and South. If it is not enforced in the North this must be because of unconstitutional foreign occupation.

8 Locke, Two Treatises of Civil Government, Book II, chapter

9 Leviathan, chapter XV, Everyman edition, p. 82.

10 Lev. Rev. Conc., Everyman, p. 386.

11 Lev. Rev. Conc., Everyman, p. 387.

12 Lev. Rev. Conc., Everyman, p. 387. Hobbes may be saying that spies avoid injustice only so long as their presence is physically concealed from the Government. But to deny to spies their overtly innocent occupations and their deceptive replies to interrogation is to deny their right to life by which Hobbes sets so much store.

13 Walzer, op. cit., pp. 204 ff.

14 See Townshend, op. cit., p. 153 for the famous fate of Mrs Lindsay. It would not have taken many more with her convictions and courage to ruin the IRA; as for her convictions, there must have been as many who shared them as shared those of the revolution. This illustrates powerfully how necessary it is for revolutionaries to sap the courage of their civilian opponents. It seems hard to imagine how they could use any but very severe threats for this purpose.

15 See Paskins and Dockrill, op. cit., pp. 226 ff.

16 Britton, K. W., Philosophy and the Meaning of Life (Cambridge University Press, 1969). And I owe many thanks for lively discussion of this paper to the members of the Wednesday Group, which Professor Britton started, and of the Tyne Tees Philosophy Society, especially to Mike Bavidge as chairman of both.Google Scholar

17 Leviathan, chapter XV. We are obliged to desire peace; desire for Hobbes is movement toward the thing desired—chapter VI (Everyman, p. 82; p. 23).

18 Recently done, I think, to make the religious views of a certain street homogeneous.