Introduction

Just war theory and international law have been measured by Western perspectives to assess the ethics and legality of engaging in war, the conduct in war, and justice in the aftermath. The proposed book moves beyond traditional military ethics to argue that war theory and legal conventions reflect the values from the Global North, and I make a case for the decolonization of the ethics of war—by focusing on Afro-communitarianism. Afro-communitarianism promotes solidarity, goodwill, social harmony, the interdependence of human beings within the community, mutual values, and the community being considered the upmost good. These values must be respected at all times, and thus dialogue and diplomacy must be exhausted to preserve positive communal relationships under the deontological perspective of Afro-communitarianism, but the consequentialist approach permits the use of stages of violence if necessary to rebut violence if friendly alternatives have been exhausted or would prove fruitless. It is the consequentialist ethics of Afro-communitarianism that are applied to a range of foreign military interventions. The wide variety of cases—that includes Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Kosovo, and Iraq involving foreign interventions from the United Nations and powerful Western states—will be assessed from the point of view of Afro-communitarian ethics. Once the theory of Afro-communitarianism in its consequentialist form has been outlined and defended, the remaining chapters will provide conflict analyses of each case prior to testing this philosophical theory to reach an understanding on the reasons to wage war, modes of violence, and whether there is a less discordant state of affairs in the aftermath of the intervention. This structure should appeal to interdisciplinary studies on philosophy, ethics, and war studies. The uniqueness of not only covering the theory of Afro-communitarianism extensively but also applying it to a variety of global interventions will benefit an understanding on its applicability and feasibility to foster better peaceful relations.