Just Policing

Just Policing: An Ellulian Critique

by Andy Alexis-Baker

Alexis-Baker, Andy. "Just Policing: An Ellulian Critique." The Ellul Forum 48 (Fall, 2011): 12–18.

In the past decade many pacifist-minded Christians have began to explore differences between policing and warfare with... more In the past decade many pacifist-minded Christians have began to explore differences between policing and warfare with the noble hope of limiting or even abolishing war as we know it. Jim Wallis claims that since 9/11 many Christians have re-read Jacques Ellul, “who explained his decision to support the resistance movement against Nazism by appealing to the ‘necessity of violence’ but wasn’t willing to call such recourse ‘Christian.’” Similarly, Christian pacifists might respond to terrorism, Wallis claimed, by advocating that the international community create a global police force to deal with violations of international law and human rights. Such a force, Wallis wrote, is “much more constrained, controlled, and circumscribed by the rule of law than is the violence of war, which knows few real boundaries.” Wallis’ suggestion that Ellul’s works may help to formulate a response to terrorism, and that such a response ought to be “policing” raises the question of what an Ellulian analysis of policing might look like.

In my paper, I will use Ellul—rather than summarize his views—to critique just policing. Those who advocate for just policing have not adequately tested whether police are less violent because of the rule of law, and they make ahistorical arguments that do not countenance the possibility that policing may in fact sustain or even worsen violence, not lessen it.

“Community Policing as a Paradigm for International Order.” In Just Policing, Not War: An Alternative Response to World Violence, ed. Gerald W. Schlabach, with a foreword by Jim Wallis. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2007, pp. 130-152.

by Tobias Winright

“What Might a Policing Approach Contribute to the Pacifist/Just-War Debate on Dealing with Terrorism?” In Conflict and Conciliation: Faith and Politics in an Age of Global Dissonance, ed. Jason Daverth. Dublin, Ireland: Columba Press, 2007, pp. 39-69.

by Tobias Winright

“Just Cause and Preemptive Strikes in the War on Terrorism: Insights from a Just-Policing Perspective.” The Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 26, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2006): 157-181.

by Tobias Winright

Argues that the mode of moral reasoning for the political use of force is analogous in just war theory and in just... more Argues that the mode of moral reasoning for the political use of force is analogous in just war theory and in just policing theory. Just cause in either allows for preemptive strikes (one doesn't have to wait for the enemy to shoot first) but not preventive war.