Is terrorism wrong? Given just war theory and the tactical definition, the answer is, as I have argued more fully elsewhere, clearly yes. Terrorism violates a central principle of the jus in bello, the principle of discrimination, that declares the immunity of noncombatants (“innocents”) from direct attack. It is not just that there are good utilitarian arguments for this principle or that it has been agreed between nations. The prohibition lies at the heart of the reasoning that allows for legitimate war in extremis since you are only entitled to wage war against those who are doing a certain sort of harm (and then only if other conditions are fulfilled).
