In the summer of 1979 the Division of Education Programs of the National Endowment for the Humanities sponsored an institute on “War and Morality” at the University of Massachusetts/ Amherst. The institute was attended by 20 college teachers, including nine political scientists, all of whom have since developed courses on “War and Morality” or added material relating to this subject to existing courses on their own campuses. The following essay is a report on the 1979 summer institute and its local follow-up.

When in 1949 the United Nations International Law Commission was asked to codify the law dealing with the methods and means of warfare it declined the task for the reason that “war having been outlawed, the regulation of its conduct has ceased to be relevant”.