It is a pity that The Price of Peace, resulting from a prolonged transatlantic dialogue between theologians and academics, should begin with a flawed section on modern ‘just war’ thinking which fails to recognise the difference between: 1. war between states, in which, international law having failed, the objective is to render the enemy powerless so that the victor can dictate what happens next; and 2. global criminality, as in the terrorism of gangs like al-Qaeda, which requires to be dealt with by a global police force designed precisely to restore the rule of law for the sake of the common good of all humanity. Pace authors like George Weigel, thinking about the justice of armed force cannot remain what it was: it needs to develop, as the papacy has long taught, to take full account of the fact that crime is today replacing war as the prevailing international evil.
