From the beginning, the main ethical ql,les tions re,garding war have been (1) How-if at all can war be justified? and (2) Assuming it cm •be
: justified, how should it be conducted? Most•seri
.Qus responses to these. questions• have fallen into three major categories, traditionally labeled real-
. ismpacifismand just war theory. Realism (as
;,applied to warfare) is the view that moral stan
. dards are not applicable to war, which must be
•judged only on prudence, on how well war serves
••state interests. War cannot be immoral, only more
• or less advantageous for the state. Eminent real
.ists of the past include the philosophers Niccolo
Machiavelli (1469-1527) and Thomas Hobbes
, (1588-1679); perhaps the most famous contem
porary realist is Henry Kissinger, former U.S. sec
;retary of state for the Nixon administration.
Realists may argue that morality has no part
. to play in warfare because all moral statements
'