Carl von Clausewitz, the nineteenth-century Prussian military theorist whose masterpiece,
On War
, is still studied today, is not typically regarded as an intellectual resource for moral philosophers and moral theologians. That’s unfortunate. For Clausewitz’s fundamental claim, that war is the extension of politics by other means, is in fact a
moral
claim. Why? Because if war is
not
politics-by-other-means—if the use of armed force is not directed to the restoration or establishment of the peace of freedom, justice, and order—then war is simply brigandage and butchery.