Books in the Military and Defence Ethics series

Philosophers have wrestled over the morality and ethics of war for nearly as long as human beings have been waging it. This book provides a comprehensive and unifying analysis of the moral, political and social questions concerning the rise of drone warfare.

Moran concentrates on three aims: to provide an overview of British military intelligence operations in the last 30 years which concentrates on operational not strategic intelligence; to examine the debates over ethics and effectiveness that have followed these operations.

Seeks to answer the question: Do precision-guided munitions mitigate suffering in war, and have these weapons changed the way decisions regarding war and peace have been made? This book helps students, and senior military and civilian leaders to understand the possible outcomes and wider implications of their choices to use such technology.

Civilian casualties in military operations involving major Western powers have started to attract public attention and debates. While the current ethical and legal frameworks, embodied in the Just War tradition (JWT) and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) respectively, prohibit direct attack on civilians, they permit harming civilians in indirect and proportionate attacks, so long as the attacks are considered legitimate. The emerging literature on ethics concerning civilian casualties points to the tension between the norms of non-combatant immunity and force protection and deals with complex ethical issues in contemporary counter-insurgency wars. This volume provides a theoretical explanation of why civilians accidentally harmed in expeditionary interventions should receive reparations. To do this, it looks beyond the current frameworks of JWT and IHL and focuses specifically on expeditionary interventions to analyse theoretical frameworks that govern compensation and reparation. Furthermore, this volume carefully examines whether arguments derived from the theory of liability and restorative justice could be applied to the context of accidental civilian casualties in armed conflict and discusses specific considerations in the context of contemporary counter-insurgency, such as whether victims should receive reparations where local insurgencies used ''human shields,'' and how victims of direct attacks by insurgents should be treated. Appealing to a wide audience from multiple disciplines, this volume is designed for scholars and courses on military ethics, international relations, and peace studies.

As asymmetric ΓÇÖwars among the peopleΓÇÖ replace state-on-state wars in modern armed conflict, the growing role of military medicine and medical technology in contemporary war fighting has brought an urgent need to critically reassess the theory and practice of military medical ethics. Military Medical Ethics for the 21st Century is the first full length, broad-based treatment of this important subject. Written by an international team of practitioners and academics, this book provides interdisciplinary insights into the major issues facing military-medical decision makers and critically examines the tensions and dilemmas inherent in the military and medical professions. In this book the authors explore the practice of battlefield bioethics, medical neutrality and treatment of the wounded, enhancement technologies for war fighters, the potential risks of dual-use biotechnologies, patient rights for active duty personnel, military medical research and military medical ethics education in the 21st Century.

Traditionally few people challenged the distinction between absolute and selective conscientious objection by those being asked to carry out military duties. The former is an objection to fighting all wars - a position generally respected and accommodated by democratic states, while the latter is an objection to a specific war or conflict - theoretically and practically a much harder idea to accept and embrace for military institutions. However, a decade of conflict not clearly aligned to vital national interests combined with recent acts of selective conscientious objection by members of the military have led some to reappraise the situation and argue that selective conscientious objection ought to be legally recognised and permitted. Political, social and philosophical factors lie behind this new interest which together mean that the time is ripe for a fresh and thorough evaluation of the topic. This book brings together arguments for and against selective conscientious objection, as well as case studies examining how different countries deal with those who claim the status of selective conscientious objectors. As such, it sheds new light on a topic of increasing importance to those concerned with military ethics and public policy, within military institutions, government, and academia.

This book examines the issue of ethics in the context of the provision of military health care in an epidemic.

While there has been extensive discussion on what counts as military professionalism, that is what makes a soldier, sailor or other military personnel a professional, the warrior archetype (varied for the various roles and service branches) still holds sway in the military self-conception, rooted as it is in the more existential notions of war.

A decade of conflict not clearly aligned to vital national interests combined with recent acts of selective conscientious objection by members of the military have led some to reappraise the distinction between absolute and selective conscious objection, and argue that selective conscientious objection ought to be legally recognised and permitted.

Kantian-inspired approaches to ethics are a hugely important part of the philosophical landscape in the 21st century. This collection presents a sampling of how an ethicist who takes Kantian commitments seriously might address controversial questions in the profession of arms.

Considers the extant to which the theory and practice of educating soldiers, sailors and airmen in the ethics of 'old fashioned' warfaring is adequate to prepare members of the military to meet the more complex ethical challenges faced when engaging in irregular warfare in the 21st century.

Military Medical Ethics for the 21st Century is the first full length, broad-based treatment of this important subject. Written by an international team of practitioners and academics.

Responding to increasing global anxiety over the ethics education of military personnel, this volume illustrates the depth, rigour and critical acuity of Professional Military Ethics Education (PMEE) with contributions by ethical theorists. It also explores a neglected moral dimension of warfare, jus ante bellum (the ethics of pre-war practices).

Bringing together contributors from philosophy, security studies, and strategic studies, this book offers an interdisciplinary analysis reflective of the nature of modern warfare. It allows the reader to see the broad scope of modern military ethics, and to understand the numerous questions about modern conflict that require critical scrutiny.