Professor Renzo's paper "Political Self-Determination and Wars of National Defense", argues that a war of national defense is a war waged by a victim state to defend itself against an attack whose ultimate aim is not to kill any of the members of the victim state, but rather to acquire control over certain “political goods” belonging to them.

Renzo says, "These political goods include one or more of the following: the control of the victim state's political institutions; the imposition of certain political and cultural values on victim state's population; the acquisition of victim state's territory; the seizure of victim state's natural resources. To be sure, the aggressing state is ready to kill the members of the victim state, but only if they attempt to resist the aggressing state's aggression."

The Journal of Moral Philosophy is a peer-reviewed journal of moral, political and legal philosophy with an international focus. It publishes articles in all areas of normative philosophy, including pure and applied ethics, as well as moral, legal, and political theory.