He Was Called "The Jesuit"

Sir Michael Quinlan, who died on February 26 aged 78, was among the most gifted civil servants of his generation; his principal area of expertise was defense, and he was an acknowledged expert on nuclear deterrence.

Quinlan ended his career as Permanent Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Defense, serving from 1988 to 1992.

He was known as "the Jesuit" for his devout Roman Catholicism and his acuity, and it was once said of him that he was devoted to four things only: "His God, his family, MCC and the hydrogen bomb". More aptly, one former colleague and friend described him as a "philosopher of defense": his achievement was to establish a rationale for nuclear deterrence, and in the process he became highly influential inside government and the most formidable intellectual opponent of CND

. The Russian chiefs of staff once paid him the handsome compliment of inviting him to lecture to them on the subject.

Although his discretion never deserted him, Quinlan was a man of strong moral views, and in retirement he was much in demand both as a writer and speaker. In 2007 he co-wrote, with former Chief of the General Staff Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, Just War: The Just War Tradition: Ethics in Modern Warfare.

This short thesis on the Christian concept of the Just War identifies the traditional series of tests – just cause, proportionate cause, right intention, right authority, reasonable prospect of success and last resort – which must be satisfied if war is to be morally justified; then there is the manner in which war is waged (for example, using only as much force as is necessary);

and finally there is jus post bellum – the duty to "face up to responsibilities for what happens after military victory has been won".

All these considerations had been at the forefront of Quinlan's mind during the prelude to the Iraq war of 2003. In their book, he and Guthrie argued that the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq were clearly "unjust". Writing in a different arena only weeks before the invasion, Quinlan had said: "The issue need not have been pushed to the top of the international agenda. Saddam was... not behind al-Qaeda's 11 September outrages; not even the CIA believes that he would risk giving 'weapons of mass destruction' to terrorists. Comparisons with Hitler are an ignorant joke."

Quinlan conceded that Saddam had to be confronted for his "intolerable" defiance of the United Nations, but "we did not have to be straitjacketed into choosing between inaction and the extraordinary step – unique, for the West – of starting from cold a full-scale war. Such a war will certainly succeed sooner or later, in narrow military terms. But at what human, economic and moral cost – and with what repercussions in the long aftermath? In the circumstances of the Middle East, it will be a massive rock thrown into a deep and dark pool, and we cannot be sure where the ripples will spread or what creatures may be roused from the silt."

Link (here) to the article.