Section 4: A Thousand Splendid Suns
Scenario: World War II
In 1933, Hitler took power in Germany and began dismantling the limits placed on it after World War I, rearming the country, remilitarizing the Rhineland, annexing Austria, and taking the Sudetenland after the Munich Agreement.
In March 1939, Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia, and in August it signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with the USSR, which secretly divided Eastern Europe between them.
On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Britain and France, Poland's allies who had guaranteed its independence, declared war two days later.
Discuss: Was the declaration of war justified according to Aquinas' criteria?
Scenario: Ukraine's defensive war
In 2014, after the Euromaidan protests and President Yanukovych's flight, Russia annexed Crimea and backed separatists in the Donbas. The Minsk agreements failed to end the fighting.
Russia massed troops near Ukraine's borders in 2021–22 and invaded in February 2022. Ukraine's defenders cite self-defence against invasion, and the UN General Assembly has condemned the invasion.
Russia cites NATO expansion and the protection of Russian speakers, claims that most Western governments and scholars reject.
Discuss: Apply Aquinas' criteria to Ukraine's defensive war. What evidence supports your judgement?
Scenario: Iraq's invasion of Iran
The 1975 Algiers Accord had settled the Shatt al-Arab boundary dispute, but the 1979 Iranian Revolution and Khomeini's calls for Shia uprisings alarmed Saddam Hussein's government.
Border clashes and mutual accusations escalated through 1980. Iraq abrogated the accord in September, and its forces invaded. Iraq presented the invasion as a response to Iranian provocation and a recovery of territory, while Iran argued it was unprovoked aggression. The Security Council initially called for a ceasefire without naming an aggressor.
Discuss: Was Iraq's invasion justified under Aquinas' criteria? Explain your reasoning.