Deck 16: Political Violence: War, Terrorism, and Torture

Question 1

The view that moral standards are not applicable to war and that it must be judged only on how well it serves state interests is known as:

A)cynicism.
B)just war theory.
C)realism.
D)pacifism.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Suppose that terrorism is defined broadly as the deliberate use of violence against noncombatants for political or ideological purposes.In this case the Allied bombings of Dresden and other German cities in World War II and the atomic obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would be considered:

A)acts of war.
B)nonterrorist acts.
C)terrorist acts.
D)unclassifiable actions.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Suppose the Iraq War,which began in 2003 when the United States and its allies attacked Iraq,started because President George W.Bush and his advisors feared that Saddam Hussein might be dangerous.And suppose at that time there was no evidence that Iraq was an immediate and imminent threat-that is,there was no evidence that Iraq had nearly completed plans to attack the United States with weapons of mass destruction.If these were the facts,most just war theorists would probably have judged the attack by the United States to be:

A)preemptive.
B)justified.
C)unjustified.
D)prudent.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

According to the text,violence against noncombatants for political,religious,or ideological ends is:

A)preemptive war.
B)preventive war.
C)nonstate torture.
D)terrorism.

Question 5

Eminent realists of the past and present include:

A)Niccolò Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, and Henry Kissinger.
B)Henry Kissinger, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Jimmy Carter.
C)Reinhold Niebuhr, Thomas Hobbes, and Barack Obama.
D)Niccolò Machiavelli, George W. Bush, and Henry Kissinger.

Question 6

In war the distinction between combatant and noncombatant is:

A)often not very clear.
B)unambiguous in actual situations.
C)very clear to troops on the ground.
D)impossible to make.

Question 7

The view that war is never morally permissible is known as:

A)just war theory.
B)pacifism.
C)internationalism.
D)realism.

Question 8

Suppose you are a utilitarian,and suppose it is an empirical fact that wars invariably cause more bad consequences than good.To be consistent,you then would have to accept the view known as:

A)personal pacifism.
B)just war pacifism.
C)realism.
D)antiwar pacifism.

Question 9

The doctrine that war may be morally permissible under stipulated conditions is known as:

A)realism.
B)justice in war.
C)just war theory.
D)justice of war.

Question 10

Suppose State A launches an unprovoked attack on State B.According to the usual interpretation of just war theory,State B has just cause for going to war against State A-namely:

A)revenge.
B)self-defense against attack.
C)expectation of success.
D)profits in war.

Question 11

The just war theorist Michael Walzer asserts that terrorism is wrong because:

A)terrorists always act from dubious motives.
B)it is an indiscriminate attack on the innocent.
C)terrorist attacks are directed at specific persons for particular reasons.
D)often innocents deserve their fate.

Question 12

The resort to violence for political ends is referred to as:

A)mass violence.
B)state violence.
C)political violence.
D)purposeful.

Question 13

In 2008 in Mumbai India,Pakistan-based militants killed 174 people in a shooting rampage.The philosopher Haig Khatchadourian would judge this terrorist act to be:

A)justified in light of India's record on human rights.
B)justified because of the motives of the terrorists.
C)morally right.
D)morally wrong.

Question 14

As defined in the text,the physical or psychological attack on,or the vigorous abuse of,persons,causing their suffering,injury,or death is:

A)war.
B)terrorism.
C)hatred in action.
D)violence.

Question 15

People who should not be intentionally attacked in war are said to have:

A)war immunity.
B)state protection.
C)noncombatant immunity.
D)special status.

Question 16

A war launched because an attack from another state is not actual but merely feared is known as a(n):

A)preemptive war.
B)immediate war.
C)preventive war.
D)imminent war.

Question 17

Most people hold that violence is:

A)neither right nor wrong.
B)unfortunate but not evil.
C)prima facie right.
D)prima facie wrong.

Question 18

In just war theory,the justification for resorting to war has traditionally been labeled:

A)jus in bello.
B)just cause principle.
C)justice of conflict.
D)jus ad bellum.

Question 19

The intentional inflicting of severe pain or suffering on people to punish or intimidate them or to extract information from them is referred to as:

A)terrorism.
B)collateral damage.
C)permissible violence.
D)torture.

Question 20

A plausible nonconsequentialist argument for pacifism is:

A)war is always wrong because in the deliberate killing of human beings it violates a fundamental right-the right to life.
B)war is never justified, because it always produces more bad than good. The catastrophic loss of life and the widespread destruction of war can never offset whatever political or material gains are achieved; riches, land, oil, or power cannot outweigh the carnage.
C)war inevitably leads to more war, and multiple wars can never outweigh the good that might come out of so many conflicts.
D)the loss of even one life in a war is so catastrophically bad that no amount of good resulting from the war could counterbalance it.

Question 21

Assume that the U.S.invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 was an act of self-defense against the Taliban regime.An antiwar pacifist would probably judge the war to be ______,and a humanitarian interventionist would say that ______.

A)justified; this is not a case of humanitarian intervention
B)unjustified; this is not a case of humanitarian intervention
C)unjustified; the war was justified as a humanitarian intervention
D)justified; the war was justified as a humanitarian intervention

Question 22

Consider the "ticking bomb" scenario,which is used to justify using torture to fight terrorism.Some who are opposed to torture believe that ticking-bomb scenarios are too contrived to be taken seriously; such states of affairs simply don't happen in the real world.A plausible counterargument to this position is that:

A)ticking-bomb situations happen all the time.
B)ticking-bomb situations have often been depicted in movies and TV series.
C)in light of what we know about terrorists' ethnicity, we have good reasons to believe that ticking-bomb situations are possible.
D)in light of what we know about terrorist tactics and aims (and about police cases that resemble ticking-bomb scenarios), we have good reasons to believe that ticking-bomb situations are possible.

Question 23

Suppose you are an immunity theorist,and you hear that an attack by American soldiers on a group of twenty ruthless terrorists has resulted in the death not only of the terrorists but also of one noncombatant woman.As an immunity theorist you would judge this action to be:

A)permissible.
B)impermissible.
C)justified but regrettable.
D)justified only because so many terrorists were killed.

Question 24

Suppose you took a Kantian means-end view of torture.You then would likely judge torture to be:

A)morally permissible.
B)morally impermissible.
C)neither right nor wrong.
D)permissible to save lives.

Question 25

Suppose you are a humanitarian interventionist,and you argue that all persons have certain supremely important,basic rights that must not be violated by either people or states; people who have these basic rights violated are entitled to use force to defend them,and it is morally permissible for other people or states to use force to help in that defense; people or states that violate others' basic rights forfeit their own right not to have force used against them; therefore,humanitarian intervention is morally permissible in defense of basic rights.Applying this view to the intervention in Libya in 2011 (as described in the text),you would probably judge the intervention to be:

A)morally preemptive.
B)unjustified.
C)justified.
D)morally permissible.