A01=Frederic Gros
absolute enemy
Author_Frederic Gros
Category=JPA
Category=JW
Category=QDX
causes of war
conflict
conventional war
courage
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eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethics of war
history
international security
jus ad bellum
jus in bello
Just war
Karl Marx
Machiavelli
military
natural peace
Plato
political science
politics
Russia
Slavoj Zizek
Thomas Hobbes
total war
Ukraine
Product details
- ISBN 9781804296028
- Weight: 98g
- Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 13 Jan 2026
- Publisher: Verso Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Russia's invasion of Ukraine seems to many like a throwback to another age, rattling Europe with memories of past horrors. But since the end of the Second World War there has not been a single day without armed conflict somewhere in the world. Drawing on the great political philosophers, from Plato to Marx, via Machiavelli and Hobbes, Frédéric Gros attempts to answer the age-old questions regarding humanity's propensity to wage war: What is a just war? What moral constraints operate on the combatants? Does the state make war or does war make the state? Finally, after exploring the meaning and the spectre of total war, he tackles the ultimate question: Why war?
Frédéric Gros is both philosopher and writer. In France, he was the leading editor of Michel Foucault's works and lectures. He teaches political humanities at Sciences-po Paris. His first major success was a book on walking (A Philosophy of Walking), translated into some twenty languages.
