"Cutting across religion, law, and political theory, The Cross, the Sword, and the Eagle presents a comprehensive just war theory that prioritizes justice over peace and is based on time-honored Christian traditions. The book advocates a new way of defining when the use of force is legitimate, striving for the higher morality of achieving the greater good.

In this book, Davis Brown argues that the just war tradition drives the contemporary military ethos and statecraft of the United States. As the world's only superpower and the world's standard-bearer for democracy, the United States has more armed forces stationed or deployed outside its borders than all other countries combined. Because of this, the conduct of the United States - for good or ill - has enormous ramifications on the development of norms in international law and statecraft. It therefore behooves the international community to appreciate what values the United States seeks to advance when it resorts to military force."--BOOK JACKET.