The right and justice of subsistence wars as necessity: a Grotian account

Abstract

Subsistence wars revolve around the use of force exercised by those faced with hunger, deprivation, and other survival crises. This idea has been formulated as an act emerging from the right of self-defense in the ethics of war literature. Alternatively, this study attempts to conceptualize and justify it with the notion of the right of necessity derived from Hugo Grotius. The structural difference between self-defense and necessity highlights strict just war conditions that must be met before, during, and after waging a subsistence war, especially when it emerges from the right of necessity. The idea of waging a war out of necessity seems too permissive; in fact, it has a regulatory aspect as well. Given the significance of the right to subsistence, which is universally shared yet globally threatened, the war of subsistence is to be seen as a real and pressing concern in current and future international society.