Military Ethics in the New Millennium

1
Military Ethics in the New Millennium

• The Ethics of Warfare in the 21st Century

2
From Humanitarian Intervention to Virtual War

• Kosovo campaign achieved its objectives without a
  single NATO combat fatality
• Michael Ignatieff (Harvard) calls this virtual
  war or war without casualties
• Does this pose any new or unexplored moral
  dilemmas?

3
Some Possible Moral Problems

• Riskless war (for the superior force) is
  easier to fight
• violence which moralizes itself as justice, and
  which is unrestrained by consequences
  (Ignatieff)
• Risk is almost entirely exported to the opposing
  side, and to its civilian non-combatants

4
Cyber War (Information War)

• Kosovo again do we target fielded forces (Gen.
  Wesley Clark) versus Belgrade command center
• Destroying the credibility and reliability of
  the data on which the enemy bases his decisions
  becomes just as effective as killing his people
  or wrecking his cities. (Ignatieff)
• Examples of dual use targets TV stations,
  power stations and grids, telephones, satellite
  communications, financial systems
• Cyber terrorism computer viruses, hacking

5
Moral Issues in Cyber War

• warfare directed at a societys nervous system,
  rather than against its fielded forces,
  necessarily blurs the distinction between
  civilian and military objectives (Ignatieff)
• As with economic sanctions, attacks aimed at an
  enemys infrastructure do disproportionate harm
  to non-combatants
• Do we respond to a cyber-invasion with a similar
  computer attack, or a conventional pounding with
  cruise missiles?

6
Virtual Mobilization Consent

• Virtual war may not demand the same physical
  involvement or moral attention required of
  citizens over the past centuries
• Tom Ricks the widening gap we now wage war
  in Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, and few notice or
  care

7
Summary and Review

• These emerging issues demand a command of new
  sets of data, new concepts, and a whole new
  battle space awareness
• But they rely for their analysis on the same
  fundamental theories and principles you have
  mastered in this course

8
Approaches (theories)

• Right/wrong ACTIONS Duty (Kants Categorical
  Imperative procedure)
• Good/bad CONSEQUENCES utility
• The quality and caliber of the moral agents
  (us) who act VIRTUE, our character (Aristotle,
  Stoicism and religious faith)
• Natural Law reason can discern what sorts of
  goals and constraints we should recognize, and
  habits of heart we should cultivate

9
Moral Issues Raised

• Liberty (J. S. Mill what does it mean? Why is
  it important?)
• Justice (John Rawls what is justice? How is it
  related to notions of fairness?)
• Natural Rights negative and positive claims that
  moral agents are entitled to make upon society
  (Feinberg and Burke)

10
Just War Theory

• Arises historically from natural law
• Applies these same principles, and invokes these
  same issues, in the matter of declaring and
  conducting war
• Concern for democratic consent (legitimate
  authority), for what counts as just cause, and
  for the perceived lack of proportionality in risk
  or indiscriminateness of effects in conventional
  and virtual cases arise from these reflections