When US President Trump and Defense Secretary Hegseth authorized lethal strikes against alleged Venezuelan drug boats, were they fighting "narco-terrorists" or normalizing uncontrolled executive power? Join us as Prof. Christopher Finlay, Professor in Political Theory and Head of the School of Government and International Affairs (SGIA) at Durham University, draws on his essay "Beware the Boomerang Effect" to dissect the profound legal and ethical challenges posed by these actions. The administration’s choice to frame these actions as "acts of war" against "unlawful combatants" grants them the latitude to use lethal force as a first resort, violating the crucial principles of necessity and imminence.

Link to the Ethics & International Affairs article: https://www.ethicsandinternationalaffairs.org/online-exclusives/beware-the-boomerang-effect-why-u-s-strikes-on-alleged-drug-boats-pose-a-profound-threat-to-american-freedom

To learn more about our guest and their research, visit their website at https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/christopher-j-finlay/

Related Literature:

Finlay, Christopher J. 2025. The Philosophy of Force: Violence, Domination, and the Ethics of Republican War. Oxford University Press. 

Finlay, Christopher J. 2024. Political Violence Misliked: The Meaning of ‘Terrorism’. In H. Williams, D. Boucher, P. Sutch, D. Reidy, & A. Koutsoukis (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of International Political Theory (pp. 231-247). Springer Nature Switzerland.

Finlay, Christopher J. (2022). Ethics, Force, and Power: on the Political Preconditions of Just War. Law and Philosophy, 41(6), 717-740.

Music: The Good News by SHANTI from https://tunetank.com/track/263-the-good-news/