Just War: A Bahá’í Perspective

War and peace are so vast areas of study and have been likewise employed in the Bahá’í writings from different perspectives. This paper examines where the Bahá’í teachings stand in the spectrum of pacifism and under what circumstances and to what extent resorting to war is justified. It is true that religions are predominantly advocates of peace; nonetheless, they do not tend to stick to it by every means. They are to introduce a rational equilibrium of socioindividual life. A traditional grasp of religion may indicate war is condemned in any way, whereas the emergence of the religions to be dealing not only with morality and spirituality, but in a modern view also to meet requirements of an ever-advancing, interrelated world necessitates prescribing other means sometimes. This is the case especially for the Bahá''í faith as one of the heralds of the world governance. This paper introduces the subordination of the individual will to that of the society as the social philosophy of the Bahá''í faith hence the consequences and implications of this attitude in the Bahá''í writings. Some Bahá''í views will therefore be discussed compared to those of contemporary international political theory such as “Just War Theory” and "Humanitarian Intervention".