Drawing on examples from the history of warfare from the Crusades to the present day, The ethics of war explores the limits and possibilities of the moral regulation of war. While resisting the commonly held view that 'war is hell', A. J. Coates focuses on the tensions which exist between war and morality. The argument is conducted from a just war standpoint, though the moral ambiguity and mixed record of that tradition is acknowledged and the dangers which an exaggerated view of the justice or moral worth of war poses are underlined. In the first part, the broad image of the just war is...