International Studies on Military Ethics – serie

The Iron Curtain fell over a quarter of a century ago. With it fell also the relatively straightforward Western assumption that war was going to be a bi-polar, symmetrical affair, albeit one with nuclear overtones - an assumption around which the training and education of military officers had hitherto been built. The immediate post Cold War period showed officers wearing a blue, rather than a green helmet, negotiating with opponents whom they ought not to call enemies and keeping the peace in situations where there was no peace to keep. Added to this was the phenomenon of international terrorism, which manifested itself on the strategic, rather than merely the tactical level. Counter-insurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrate how difficult it is to win the hearts and minds of the local population while subduing the enemy at the same time. With the distinction between what is morally right and wrong becoming ever more blurred, the moral dilemmas of officers and men have begun to multiply and the need to reconsider the basic assumptions and practices of military ethics education in this highly unpredictable world has become ever more urgent. This volume, arising out of a conference held at the Centre for Leadership Development and Civic Education of the German Armed Forces, attempts to address that need. It offers the insights both of officers with combat experience and academics closely familiar with military training, and uniquely bridges the gap between theory and practice in the teaching of military ethics.

In 2012, the UK introduced the ‘Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative’. This work examines whether it is actually possible to prevent sexual violence being employed as a weapon of war against women, men and children. It assesses existing prevention strategies, uses Daesh as a case study – to illustrate the limitations of the current approaches – and considers additional measures. The author concludes that it is possible to prevent sexual violence in war, provided that all appropriate measures are harnessed and adapted to the specific circumstances of each conflict. It will, though, require improvements to existing strategies, the use of additional prevention measures, more resources and long-term engagement of all actors. This volume was awarded the 2017 first prize in EuroISME’s annual best thesis contest.Im Jahr 2012 führte das Vereinigte Königreich die “Initiative zur Verhütung von sexueller Gewalt” ein. Diese Arbeit untersucht, ob es tatsächlich möglich ist, sexueller Gewalt vorzubeugen, die gegen Frauen, Männer und Kinder angewandt wird. Sie bewertet schon vorhandene Vorbeugungsstrategien, verwendet Daesh als Fallstudie – um die Grenzen der derzeitigen Ansätze zu illustrieren - und zieht zusätzliche Maßnahmen in Betracht. Die Arbeit schlussfolgert, dass es möglich ist, sexuelle Gewalt im Krieg zu verhindern, vorausgesetzt, dass alle angemessenen Maßnahmen nutzbar gemacht und an die spezifischen Umstände jedes Konflikts angepasst werden. Dies wird jedoch Verbesserungen der bestehenden Strategien, den Einsatz zusätzlicher Präventionsmaßnahmen, mehr Ressourcen und langfristiges Engagement aller Akteure erfordern. Diese Arbeit wurde mit dem ersten Preis des Jahres 2017 im EuroISME-Wettbewerb für die beste Abschlussarbeit in Militärethik ausgezeichnet.En 2012, le Royaume-Uni présente l’Initiative de Prévention de la Violence Sexuelle (PSVI). Cet ouvrage étudie la possibilité d’empêcher que la violence sexuelle ne soit utilisée comme arme de guerre contre les femmes, les hommes et les enfants, évalue les approches préventives existantes, prend Daech comme sujet d’étude de cas pour montrer les limites que présentent les approches actuelles, et considère des mesures supplémentaires. Ce travail conclut qu’il est possible d’empêcher l’usage de violence sexuelle en situation de conflit, pourvu que toutes les mesures adéquates soient exploitées et adaptées aux spécificités de chaque conflit. Des améliorations aux stratégies existantes, l’utilisation de mesures de prévention supplémentaires, davantage de ressources et un engagement à long terme de tous les acteurs seront cependant nécessaires. Ce mémoire a reçu le premier prix de l’année 2017 du concours annuel d’EuroISME pour le meilleur mémoire universitaire en éthique militaire.

Jus Post bellum: Restraint, Stabilisation and Peace seeks to answer the question “is restraint in war essential for a just and lasting peace”? With a foreword by Professor Brian Orend who asserts this as “a most commendable subject” in extending Just War Theory, the book contains chapters on the ethics of war-fighting since the end of the Cold War and a look into the future of conflict. From the causes of war, with physical restraint and reconciliation in combat and political settlement, further chapters written by expert academics and military participants cover international humanitarian law, practicalities of the use of force and some of the failures in achieving safe and lasting peace in modern-day theatres of conflict.

The deployment of Autonomous Weapons gives rise to ongoing debate in society and at the United Nations, in the context of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Yet little empirical research has been done on this topic. This volume fills that gap by offering an empirical study based on military personnel and civilians working at the Dutch Ministry of Defence. It yields insight into how Autonomous Weapons are perceived by the military and general public; and which moral values are considered important in relation to their deployment. The research approach used is the Value-Sensitive Design (VSD) method that allows for the consideration of human values throughout the design process of technology. The outcome indicates that military personnel and civilians attribute more agency (the capacity to think and plan) to an Autonomous Weapon than to a Human Operated Drone. In addition, it is clear that common ground exists between military and societal groups in their perception of the values of human dignity and anxiety. These two values arise often in the discourse, and addressing them is essential when considering the ethics of the deployment of Autonomous Weapons. The text of this volume is also offered in parallel French and German translation.

The speed of technological change is demonstrated not least by the new military technologies that are in use or are currently being developed. For example, the use of remote-controlled and semi-autonomous weapons systems has long been standard in the armed forces, and advances in artificial intelligence mean that more "decision-making " can be expected to be transferred to the machines used by the military. But not everything that is technologically possible is ethically justifiable. This volume, which brings together contributions to an annual conference of the European Chapter of the International Society for Military Ethics, attempts to address the ethical and legal problems posed by emerging military technologies. In a number of exciting essays, internationally renowned researchers present their insights.

Democratic societies expect their armed forces to act in a morally responsible way, which seems a fair expectation given the fact that they entrust their armed forces with the monopoly of violence. However, this is not as straightforward and unambiguous as it sounds. Present-day military practices show that political assignments, social and cultural contexts, innovative technologies and organisational structures, present military personnel with questions and dilemma’s that can have far-reaching consequences for all involved – not in the last place for the soldiers themselves. A thorough training and education, in which critical thinking is developed and stimulated, seems therefore a necessary condition for morally responsible behaviour. This book aims to contribute to this form of ‘reflective practitioning’ in military practice.

If war is a timeless reality of mankind, the ways and means whereby it is conducted have nonetheless evolved over time due to new technologies and innovative military strategies. For the most part, however, they have not challenged the ethical rules of warfare. The rapid rise in the use of automated weapons, the growing popularity of remotely controlled weapons, the development in soldiers’ enhancement technologies, of hybrid warfare and the impact of gender equality are all posing tremendous moral challenges affecting the traditional warrior ethos, the justification of killing and criminal responsibility. This begs the question: to what degree are the ways and means of modern warfare keeping pace with the current technological evolutions and societal values? Based upon a selection of presentations made at the 2022 annual conference of the International Society for Military Ethics in Europe (Euroisme), this book contains a variety of reflections on this question.

Human enhancement is a rapidly advancing field and the speed of advance of technology, from being available to being used, results in a delay to the ethics surrounding it. This is true of pharmacological enhancement (PCE) as much as exoskeletons and human-machine interfacing. Ethical issues arising from human enhancement include autonomy, safety and dignity. The first two are the cornerstones of the ethics surrounding informed consent (IC) which emanated from the necessity to protect human subjects against the risks of research. What remains unclear is how those risks are quantified, who decides whether the risk is an acceptable one and whether IC is required. This volume explores all these legal and ethical issues, including the theory and history of IC and the role of military doctors.

“In the face of such ‘unspeakable truths,’ wouldn’t it be better to simply, quietly bow down?” (Kora Andrieu: Sorry for the Genocide, 2009). This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to the question of colonial crimes. In order to reconcile with massive systemic injustice, not only the historical foundations and legal questions are relevant, but also political viewpoints and peace ethics. The book demonstrates that, in the face of extreme violence, even genocide, a political apology can be an effective tool for conflict transformation, even when the injustice is far in the past.

Language is not neutral; it determines, and is determined, by perspective. This volume explores the role of an influential vocabulary of war, sanitised language, the language that seeks to clean up the appearance of events through euphemism, abstract words and opaque phrases. Critical discourse analysis of the language of recent military campaigns shows that the public authorities do not explain events as clearly as they might. Despite social, political and strategic incentives to use sanitised language, its use appears to undermine the democratic process and reduce public authorities’ freedoms, possibly emboldening adversaries and turning away potential partners.