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Topic · Philosophy

War, Ethics, and Justification

War, Ethics, and Justification is a research topic within Philosophy. Science Explorer counts 9.2k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the ethical considerations surrounding just war theory, self-defense, proportionality in warfare, terrorism, preventive war, and the moral responsibilities of combatants. It delves into topics such as the morality of killing in war, the principles of self-defense, and the ethical implications of humanitarian intervention.

  • Just War Theory
  • Ethics
  • Self-Defense
  • Proportionality
  • Terrorism
  • Morality
  • Responsibility
  • Preventive War
  • Combatants
  • Humanitarian Intervention
Research works
9.2k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
927
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-5%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
41% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
War, Ethics, and Justification

Which countries lead War, Ethics, and Justification research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (521 and 209 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 521 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 209 works
  3. 3 Germany 159 works
  4. 4 China 72 works
  5. 5 India 55 works
  6. 6 Türkiye 54 works
  7. 7 Australia 50 works
  8. 8 Poland 49 works
  9. 9 Netherlands 48 works
  10. 10 Canada 47 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 41.3%United Kingdom: 16.5%Germany: 12.6%China: 5.7%6 others listed: 23.9%41%largest
United States521 · 41.3%United Kingdom209 · 16.5%Germany159 · 12.6%China72 · 5.7%6 others listed302 · 23.9%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead War, Ethics, and Justification research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of Oxford publishes the most War, Ethics, and Justification research, followed by United States Department of Defense and King's College London.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 23 works
  2. 2 United States Department of DefenseUnited States 15 works
  3. 3 King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 12 works
  4. 4 University of St AndrewsUnited Kingdom 10 works
  5. 5 Max Planck SocietyGermany 10 works
  6. 6 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany 9 works
  7. 7 University of ManchesterUnited Kingdom 9 works
  8. 8 Stockholm UniversitySweden 8 works
  9. 9 Durham UniversityUnited Kingdom 8 works
  10. 10 University of Notre DameUnited States 8 works

Who are the leading researchers in War, Ethics, and Justification?

The most-cited researchers publishing on War, Ethics, and Justification include Wolfgang K. Huber, Roy Frederick Baumeister and Noam Chomsky.

  1. 1 Wolfgang K. Huber Germany 239k citations
  2. 2 Roy Frederick Baumeister United States 183k citations
  3. 3 Noam Chomsky United States 141k citations
  4. 4 Paul Slovic United States 125k citations
  5. 5 Judith Butler United States 116k citations
  6. 6 D. H. Shoemaker United States 110k citations
  7. 7 Francis Fukuyama United States 110k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in War, Ethics, and Justification?

The most cited paper in War, Ethics, and Justification is "Moral injury and moral repair in war veterans: A preliminary model and intervention strategy" (Brett T. Litz, Nathan R. Stein, Eileen M. Delaney et al., 2009), with 2,712 citations. Next come "Cultural Violence" (1,961) and "Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations, by Michael Walzer" (1,222).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Moral injury and moral repair in war veterans: A preliminary model and intervention strategy Brett T. Litz, Nathan R. Stein, Eileen M. Delaney et al. · Clinical Psychology Review 30 Jul 2009 2,712
2 Cultural Violence Johan Galtung · Journal of Peace Research Aug 1990 1,961
3 Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations, by Michael Walzer William V. O’Brien · Political Science Quarterly 1979 1,222
4 Distributive Justice, State Coercion, and Autonomy Michael Blake · Philosophy &amp Public Affairs Jul 2001 976
5 Man, the State and War: A Theoretical Analysis, by Kenneth N. Waltz Paul Y. Hammond · Political Science Quarterly Sep 1960 926
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is War, Ethics, and Justification research done?

The largest centres of War, Ethics, and Justification research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Oxford (United Kingdom), Washington D.C. (United States) and New York (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Oxford.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 43 works
  2. 2 OxfordUnited Kingdom 24 works
  3. 3 Washington D.C.United States 19 works
  4. 4 New YorkUnited States 19 works
  5. 5 BeijingChina 19 works
  6. 6 BerlinGermany 18 works
  7. 7 Los AngelesUnited States 17 works
  8. 8 WarsawPoland 16 works
  9. 9 MunichGermany 15 works
  10. 10 MoscowRussia 15 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. OxfordGB · 24.4 works7.8×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in War, Ethics, and Justification than the world average.

See War, Ethics, and Justification on the map

Where is the best place to study War, Ethics, and Justification?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Oxford, University of St Andrews and University of Manchester score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 13.6778%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Stockholm UniversityUniversity of OxfordUniversity of St And…University of Manche…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 89.220.0%10.5×23 -28.0%
2University of St AndrewsUnited Kingdom 64.118.1%31.4×10 +74.3%
3University of ManchesterUnited Kingdom 62.618.1%7.0×9 +39.2%
4Stockholm UniversitySweden 61.320.5%16.0×8 -26.1%
5King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 54.414.7%9.3×12 +5.9%
6Durham UniversityUnited Kingdom 34.811.7%14.3×8 -35.3%
7Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany 26.111.5%7.0×9 -9.4%
8University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 13.86.4%4.3×8 -49.6%
9University of Notre DameUnited States 10.02.1%17.3×8 -21.6%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in War, Ethics, and Justification, country by country

Is War, Ethics, and Justification research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 5% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2023.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is War, Ethics, and Justification as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0063% in 2024.

still counting0.0050%0.010%0.015%War, Ethics, and Justification0.0060% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of War, Ethics, and Justification over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%War, Ethics, and Justification10.7% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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