Military Honour and the Conduct of War

Military Honour and the Conduct of War PDF Author: Paul Robinson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134165021
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
This study presents the first examination of the influence of ideas of honour on the causes, conduct and ending of wars from Ancient Greece to the present day. Paul Robinson begins with a theoretical examination of the concept of honour, to clearly explain the many contradictions and tensions inherent within honour systems. He then shows how honour has often contradictory and paradoxical effects on the conduct of war and illustrates this through seven case studies: Classical Greece; Ancient Rome; mediaeval Chivalry; Elizabethan England; the American Civil War; the British Empire; and the Western world after World War II (including the Vietnam War and the current conflict in Iraq). Key topics covered include: honour and virtue honour and the causes of war honour as a motivation for fighting honours and rewards death and honour honour and the conduct of war honour and the enemy honour and the ending of wars women and honour This book reveals that the often contradictory behaviour of soldiers during war is a product of the contradictions inherent in the concept of honour. This book will be of great interest to all students of military ethics, military history, politics, international relations, anthropology, sociology, philosophy and the history of ideas.

Military Honour and the Conduct of War

Military Honour and the Conduct of War PDF Author: Paul Robinson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134165021
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
This study presents the first examination of the influence of ideas of honour on the causes, conduct and ending of wars from Ancient Greece to the present day. Paul Robinson begins with a theoretical examination of the concept of honour, to clearly explain the many contradictions and tensions inherent within honour systems. He then shows how honour has often contradictory and paradoxical effects on the conduct of war and illustrates this through seven case studies: Classical Greece; Ancient Rome; mediaeval Chivalry; Elizabethan England; the American Civil War; the British Empire; and the Western world after World War II (including the Vietnam War and the current conflict in Iraq). Key topics covered include: honour and virtue honour and the causes of war honour as a motivation for fighting honours and rewards death and honour honour and the conduct of war honour and the enemy honour and the ending of wars women and honour This book reveals that the often contradictory behaviour of soldiers during war is a product of the contradictions inherent in the concept of honour. This book will be of great interest to all students of military ethics, military history, politics, international relations, anthropology, sociology, philosophy and the history of ideas.

Military Honour and the Conduct of War

Military Honour and the Conduct of War PDF Author: Paul Robinson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113416503X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
This book analyses the influences of ideas of honour on the causes, conduct, and endings of wars from Ancient Greece through to the present-day war in Iraq.

To Serve with Honor

To Serve with Honor PDF Author: Richard A. Gabriel
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
To Serve With Honor should be required reading for all members of the officer corps of the United States military. Beyond that, it should be made required reading for all United States military academies, ROTC and officer candidate programs. This treatise on military ethics goes a long way in bridging the gap between the military and society's understanding of the military's ethical dilemma. It is a must for the student of military affairs. International Social Science Review To Serve With Honor is the first book by an American to focus on the validity of current standards of military ethics in more than a century. This thoughtful study begins with the premise that the military profession is qualitatively different from any other profession. Author Richard Gabriel uses this assumption to address such vital questions as What are the limits of military obedience? and When does a soldier have an obligation to resist the orders of his superiors?

A Moral Military

A Moral Military PDF Author: Sidney Axinn
Publisher: Temple University Press
ISBN: 1592139582
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
In this new edition of the classic book on the moral conduct of war, Sidney Axinn provides a full-length treatment of the military conventions from a philosophical point of view. Axinn considers these basic ethical questions within the context of the laws of warfare: Should a good soldier ever disobey a direct military order? Are there restrictions on how we fight a war? What is meant by “military honor,” and does it really affect the contemporary soldier? Is human dignity possible under battlefield conditions? Axinn answers “yes” to these questions. His objective in A Moral Military is to establish a basic framework for moral military action and to assist in analyzing military professional ethics. He argues for the seriousness of the concept of military honor but limits honorable military activity by a strict interpretation of the notion of war crime. With revisions and expansions throughout, including a new chapter on torture, A Moral Military is an essential guide on the nature of war during a time when the limits of acceptable behavior are being stretched in new directions.

Just War Reconsidered

Just War Reconsidered PDF Author: James M. Dubik
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813168309
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
In the seminal Just and Unjust Wars, Michael Walzer famously considered the ethics of modern warfare, examining the moral issues that arise before, during, and after conflict. However, Walzer and subsequent scholars have often limited their analyses of the ethics of combat to soldiers on the ground and failed to recognize the moral responsibilities of senior political and military leaders. In Just War Reconsidered: Strategy, Ethics, and Theory, James M. Dubik draws on years of research as well as his own experiences as a soldier and teacher to fill the gaps left by other theorists. He applies moral philosophy, political philosophy, and strategic studies to historical and contemporary case studies to reveal the inaccuracies and moral bankruptcy that inform some of the literature on military ethics. Conventional just war theory adopts a binary approach, wherein political leaders have moral accountability for the decision to go to war and soldiers have accountability for fighting the war ethically. Dubik argues, however, that political and military leadership should be held accountable for the planning and execution of war in addition to the decision to initiate conflict. Dubik bases his sober reassessment on the fundamental truth that war risks the lives of soldiers and innocents as well as the political and social health of communities. He offers new standards to evaluate the ethics of warfare in the hope of increasing the probability that the lives of soldiers will not be used in vain and the innocent not put at risk unnecessarily.

True Faith And Allegiance

True Faith And Allegiance PDF Author: James H. Toner
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813145929
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
James H. Toner is professor of international relations and military ethics at the U.S. Air War College and author of Morals Under the Gun.

Redefining the Modern Military

Redefining the Modern Military PDF Author: Nathan Finney
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1682473643
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
This edited collection will expand upon and refine the ideas on the role of ethics and the profession in the 21st century. The authors delve into whether Samuel Huntington and Morris Janowitz still ring true in the 21st century; whether training and continuing education play a role in defining a profession; and if there is a universal code of ethics required for the military as a profession. Redefining the Modern Military is unique in how it treats the subject of ethics and the military profession, as well as the types of writers it brings on board to address this topic. The book puts a significant emphasis on individual agency for military professionalism as opposed to broad organizational or cultural change. Such a review of these topics is necessary because the process of serious, intellectual self-reflection is a requirement--especially in a profession that involves life and death of people and nations.

An Introduction to Military Ethics

An Introduction to Military Ethics PDF Author: Bill Rhodes
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0313350469
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
This comprehensive overview examines the many facets of military ethics as they are applied during times of armed conflict and times of peace. An Introduction to Military Ethics: A Reference Handbook presents the philosophical and conceptual foundations of military ethics, offering an excellent foundation for exploration and discussion of these issues. It focuses first on the 2,500-year legacy of the "just war theory" and its application through history. It then moves to the application of that tradition in the modern era, showing how acts of terrorism by nonstate participants require a new theory and way of thinking about when and how armed force can be justifiably employed. Further, the author analyzes how new theories might alter the fundamental identity of traditional defensive military forces. The book also addresses peacetime ethical issues, such as gender integration and the role of religion in the military. The book is essential reading for military officers and students, as well as those policymakers who confront decisions about how to deploy military force during the War on Terror.

Military Ethics and Virtues

Military Ethics and Virtues PDF Author: Peter Olsthoorn
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136894292
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
This book examines the role of military virtues in today's armed forces. Although long-established military virtues, such as honor, courage and loyalty, are what most armed forces today still use as guiding principles in an effort to enhance the moral behavior of soldiers, much depends on whether the military virtues adhered to by these militaries suit a particular mission or military operation. Clearly, the beneficiaries of these military virtues are the soldiers themselves, fellow-soldiers, and military organizations, yet there is little that regulates the behavior of soldiers towards civilian populations. As a result, troops trained for combat in today's missions sometimes experience difficulty in adjusting to the less aggressive ways of working needed to win the hearts and minds of local populations after major combat is over. It can be argued that today's missions call for virtues that are more inclusive than the traditional ones, which are mainly about enhancing military effectiveness, but a convincing case can be made that a lot can already be won by interpreting these traditional virtues in different ways. This volume offers an integrated approach to the main traditional virtues, exploring their possible relevance and proposing new ways of interpretation that are more in line with the military tasks of the 21st century. The book will be of much interest to students of military ethics, philosophy, and war and conflict in general.

Obeying Orders

Obeying Orders PDF Author: Mark J. Osiel
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351502565
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 555

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Book Description
A soldier obeys illegal orders, thinking them lawful. When should we excuse his misconduct as based in reasonable error? How can courts convincingly convict the soldier's superior officer when, after Nuremberg, criminal orders are expressed through winks and nods, hints and insinuations? Can our notions of the soldier's "due obedience," designed for the Roman legionnaire, be brought into closer harmony with current understandings of military conflict in the contemporary world? Mark J. Osiel answers these questions in light of new learning about atrocity and combat cohesion, as well as changes in warfare and the nature of military conflict. Sources of atrocity are far more varied than current law assumes, and such variations display consistent patterns. The law now generally requires that soldiers resolve all doubts about the legality of a superior's order in favor of obedience. It excuses compliance with an illegal order unless the illegality - as with flagrant atrocities - would be immediately obvious to anyone. But these criteria are often in conflict and at odds with the law's underlying principles and policies. Combat and peace operations now depend more on tactical imagination, self-discipline, and loyalty to immediate comrades than on immediate, unreflective adherence to the letter of superiors' orders, backed by threat of formal punishment. The objective of military law is to encourage deliberative judgment. This can be done, Osiel suggests, in ways that enhance the accountability of our military forces, in both peace operations and more traditional conflicts, while maintaining their effectiveness. Osiel seeks to "civilianize" military law while building on soldiers' own internal ideals of professional virtuousness. He returns to the ancient ideal of martial honor, reinterpreting it in light of new conditions, arguing that it should be implemented through realistic training in which legal counsel plays an enlarged role rather than by threat of legal prosecuti