Just War and the Leaderless State

Jonathan Watson offers another consideration to Steve's analysis of just war theory as applied to the assassination of Hugo Chavez:

although the just war analysis on assassination of Chavez looks at him as a confluence of two people (individual and leader), the proportionality idea needs an additional thought. My consideration is of him as a leader in a position of power. Whenever the leader of a country dies while in office, there is naturally a time of confusion while the power vacuum is filled. When the transition is planned for, such as is the case in the United States, where we have ready successors and electors to fill the gap if necessary, that time of confusion is short and tends toward the orderly. However, when the electoral are questionable, the leader holds power either through Machiavellian or other power politics, or succession is unplanned and unexpected, chaos could result.  In my (short) experience, such chaos often results in the deaths of innocents, as well as economic depression. This should be taken into account in any just war discussion on assassination.

Jonathan also has three more entries for our Catholic legal theory book list:

Christopher Lasch, The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics

Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations

Gratian, The Decretum, Treatise on Law

Rob