Local author Stephana Landwehr has decided to republish her book, "The Politics of War and Peace."
The reason? Because the question of the morality of war may be just as relevant today as it was decades ago.
"The Politics of War and Peace" explores themes such as the morality of war, level of force that's deemed appropriate and what constitutes a 'just war' through a collection of writings from historic philosophers.
"We prepared a little introduction for each of those so that people can understand them a little bit better," said author Stephana Landwehr, who graduated from the University of Missouri with a PHD in Political Science.
Landwehr met the co-author, Abbot Brayton, in the 1970s at the university where she was teaching.
"We often talked about war because it was the era of the Vietnam conflict. And so we decided that we would explore what other thinkers historically had said about the just war and war in general, and strategies and military issues. And so we began to collect writings which turned into the sixty original writings in the book," Landwehr said.
From there, they sought advice from known military leader Andrew J. Goodpaster, who then wrote the foreword to their book.
Landwehr said: "We saw the turmoil and the confusion present in the international world regarding when force could be used and what was the criteria for using force against another country. And that was very present during Vietnam. And it is present today."
The pressing question of what qualifies a person to wage war and what requirements they must face are also addressed in Landwehr's work.
"Some of them say you have to be a just person. Some of them say that that is not necessary. Some of them say that you can be in the position of declaring war if you're present to yourself and conscious and if you are not handicapped in any way," Landwehr said.
Landwehr and Brayton continued to develop the book before publishing it in 1981.
Though it was being picked up by universities and colleges, continuing to work on the book and its distribution proved to be difficult when their lives became increasingly busy. Brayton retired from the military and began to work in business and Landwehr also grew busier with work.
But that wasn't the end for "The Politics of War and Peace."
Roughly six or seven months ago, when Landwehr began to see similar arguments occurring today as the ones in her book, she was struck with an idea to republish her work.
"When I began to think about things currently, now that I'm in retirement, I wondered where I heard these issues talked about before and I realized that many of the things that people are concerned about today have some information in the book about them," Landwehr said.
"The Politics of War and Peace" is now available for purchase online at Barnes and Noble, BookBaby and Amazon.
"We're considering the possibility of publishing it again in paper copy," Landwehr said. "Currently, it is in paper in about 324 libraries worldwide, so it's still very widely distributed. But I think that it has implications for politicians today, military leaders and also students who are studying international relations."
Landwehr said the intent of the book is to present people with a wide range of thoughts on what people in different times and places thought about war and peace.
Landwehr added: "The idea is to give people an array of what people have said about that so people today can be making better decisions about what they not only do but also what they say publicly.
"So the idea is to help people make better informed decisions by thinking things through in a reasonable fashion. And not plunging unthinkingly into war that is destructive of people or holding out for peace when there is terrible aggression in the world."
Stephana Landwehr (Josh Cobb/Jefferson City News Tribune photo)