Michael Walzer

In the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel October 7, Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Science, writes for The Atlantic on how, in his view, not every act of resistance is justified.

In 1977, Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Science, "updated the Augustinian theory on the legitimacy of armed conflicts from a secular and leftist point of view" with his book Just and Unjust Wars. In this interview, he addresses the moral dilemmas surrounding the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

As part of a three episode series which aims to help improve understanding of liberalism, host Justin Kempf speaks with Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Science. The podcast touches on Walzer's newest book, The Struggle for a Decent Politics: On Liberal as an Adjective.

By Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Science:

"No one doubts that leaving, refusing to fight against Ukraine, is a good thing, a commendable act, but is it morally obligatory?"

By Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Science:

"'A conqueror,' wrote the military theorist Carl von Clausewitz, 'is always a lover of peace. He would like to make his entry into our state unopposed; in order to prevent this, we must choose to fight.' The crime of aggression is to force men and women to make that choice."

By Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Science:

"Condemnation has mostly been based on an entirely correct reading of international law. The Russian war is an unprovoked attack on a neighbor, an independent and sovereign state. It is clearly illegal. It is also, and this is more important, unjust."