THE ORDER OF WAR IN SAAVEDRA FAJARDO'S THINKING

Abstract

The present article examines the considerations about war in Saavedra Fajardo’s thinking, marked in the context contemporary to him that included both the Flanders’ and the Thirty-Year’s Wars. These are organised around three different axes: the law of those who make war (military discipline), ius in bello (law of war), ius ad bellum (just war). The just cause, inseparably linked to Spain’s intended job as guarantor of European peace, arbitrator and police at once, as well as the rumour of a resigned universal control, manifest the vitality of the Spanish imperial sovereignty project in the Fajardian thinking. Completing the image of a tacitistic Saavedra with this of an imperial Saavedra is fundamental to globally understand his political thinking in the context of transit that is his own.