Passion and Nation: War, Crime, and Guilt in the Individual and the Collective

Abstract

Riffing off of George Fletcher's theory of Romanticism and war, the article reviews Fletcher's arguments, which received derisive reviews during the War against Iraq in 2003. The article takes Fletcher's approach seriously in considering the problem of war as a Romantic impulse, and the difficulties caused by that understanding. The article then derives arguments on the limits of the laws of war to apply to military actions against terrorism. The article considers the nature of collective guilt as a mitigating element in the crimes of one individual, and it considers the nature of non-state enemies in war. This last point is illustrated through detailed contrast between the U.S. experiences in the Barbary Wars and the Punitive Expedition to Mexico.

Keywords: War, romanticism, romantic, liberal, honor, law of war, guilt, collective guilt, crime and war, terrorist, terrorism, terror, counter terrorism, war crimes, war crimes tribunal, moral ecology, George Fletcher, Robert George, Pershing, Villa, Punitive Expedition, Mexico, police action, Barabary War, Barbary Pirate, state, nation

JEL Classification: K10, K14, K33, K42