Most books and articles still treat leadership and ethics as related though separate phenomena. This edited volume is an exception to that rule, and explicitly treats leadership and ethics as a single domain. Clearly, ethics is an aspect of leadership, and not a distinct approach that exists alongside other approaches to leadership. This holds especially true for the for the military, as it is one of the few organizations that can legitimately use violence. Military leaders have to deal with personnel who have either used or experienced violence. This intertwinement of leadership and violence separates military leadership from leadership in other professions. Even in a time that leadership is increasingly questioned, it is still good leadership that keeps soldiers from crossing the thin line between legitimate force and excessive violence

With formal ethics education programmes being a rarity in most countries' armed forces, there is a growing importance for servicemen to undergo additional military ethics training. But how do we ensure that soldiers learn the right lessons from it? Furthermore, how can we achieve a uniformity of approach? The current lack of uniformity about what constitutes ethical behaviour and how troops should be educated in it is potentially a cause for serious alarm. This book advances knowledge and understanding of the issues associated with this subject by bringing together experts from around the world to analyze the content, mode of instruction, theoretical underpinnings, and the effect of cultural and national differences within current ethics programmes. It also explores whether such programmes are best run by military officers, chaplains or academic philosophers, and reflects whether it is feasible to develop common principles and approaches for the armed forces of all Western countries. This is an invaluable volume for military academies and staff colleges to enhance understanding of a matter which requires much further thought and which is becoming a vital force in influencing outcomes on the battlefields of the twenty-first century. The book will primarily be of interest to military officers and others directly involved in ethics education in the military, as well as to philosophers and students of military affairs.

This collection is a unique joint venture of teachers in, and practitioners of military ethics. Representatives of each branch of the Armed Forces, i.e. the Navy, the Army, the Air Force and the Military Police, discuss their branch-specific experiences with moral questions and dilemma's. The moral questions and dilemma's which arise in their work are also discussed by certain professional groups within the Armed Forces, such as the Military Medical Service and the Military Psychological Service. Detailed attention is given to how junior commanders can enhance morally responsible behaviour within their unit. A substantial part of the book focuses on teaching military ethics. It includes the Socratic dialogue, decision-making skills, and a chapter containing fictitious moral dilemmas that can be used as exercises. The book is aimed at those responsible for training at military training centres as well as at cadets, midshipmen and young officers. It will also be an important tool for commanders preparing for a mission. And it will be of use for all those concerned with the subject of military ethics at policy and management level, both in the armed forces and outside it. Military Ethics: The Dutch Approach - A Practical Guide is an adapted translation of the main chapters of the Dutch-language volume "Praktijkboek Militaire Ethiek" (Practitioner's Guide Military Ethics).

Military professionals need to have a clear and working knowledge of the ethical decision-making process that underpin their profession in order to evaluate situations quickly. This volume identifies 14 key virtues and through introductory essays and real world examples, provides guidance for service personnel at every stage of their career.

Following the humanitarian horrors of the 1990s, the international community began to seek consensus on a new norm to help address the tension between upholding the sovereign right of states to administer their own internal affairs, and the pressing need for civilian populations to be protected from their own government in certain situations. The result was the responsibility to protect initiative from the UN, accepted as an emerging norm and based on existing legal structures although not itself necessarily accepted as law. This volume looks not only at the humanitarian-inspired interventions of the past 15 years, such as those that took place under the Force for Good banner of the UK Government under New Labour, but also looks at what this has meant for the people actually involved in doing them. What responsibilities do states have towards their own soldiers when sending them to protect ‘other’ people? Should that responsibility extend to moral and psychological protection as well as physical protection, and if so, how? How far does the duty go when considering the protection of one’s own citizens who have deliberately placed themselves in harm’s way, such as journalists who have chosen to leave the safety of a protected area? What happens when institutions are faced with the choice of protecting their people or their reputation? What does it feel like for the inhabitants of a state who become ‘protected’ by the international community? The book brings together international scholars and practitioners to address these concerns from both sides of the coin, recognising that international initiatives have practical implications.

A comprehensive and case-driven account of the core ethical principles of the "Profession of Arms," together with a description of the rigorous ethical demands and moral dilemmas these principles impose upon individuals, both in and beyond combat. A thorough but readable, engaging account addressed both to military personnel and the wider public.

This book examines the importance of "military ethics" in the formulation and conduct of contemporary military strategy. Clausewitz’s original analysis of war relegated ethics to the side-lines in favor of political realism, interpreting the proper use of military power solely to further the political goals of the state, whatever those may be. This book demonstrates how such single-minded focus no longer suffices to secure the interest of states, for whom the nature of warfare has evolved to favor strategies that hold combatants themselves to the highest moral and professional standards in their conduct of hostilities. Waging war has thus been transformed in a manner that moves beyond Clausewitz’s original conception, rendering political success wholly dependent upon the cultivation and exercise of discerning moral judgment by strategists and combatants in the field. This book utilizes a number of perspectives and case studies to demonstrate how ethics now plays a central role in strategy in modern armed conflict. This book will be of much interest to students of just war, ethics, military strategy, and international relations.

This volume is designed to be an in-depth and nuanced philosophical treatment of the virtue of obedience in the context of the professional military and the broader civilian political community, including the general citizenry. The nature and components of obedience are critical factors leading to further discussions of the moral obligations related to obedience, as well as the related practical issues and implications. Pauline Shanks Kaurin seeks to address the following questions: What is obedience? Is it a virtue, and if it is, why? What are the moral grounds of obedience? Why ought military members and citizens be obedient? Are there times that one ought not be obedient? Why? How should we think about obedience in contemporary political communities? In answering these questions, the book draws on arguments and materials from a variety of disciplines including classical studies, philosophy, history, international relations, literature and military studies, with a particular focus on cases and examples to illustrate the conceptual points. While a major focus of the book is the question of obedience in the contemporary military context, many similar (although not exactly the same) issues and considerations apply to other political communities and in, particular, citizens in a nation-state.

Dual loyalties exist in many medical fields, from occupational health to public health. Military health professionals, as all health professionals, are ethically responsible for their patients' well-being. In some situations, however, military health professionals can face unique ethical tensions between responsibilities to individual patients and responsibilities to military operations. This book summarizes the one-day workshop, Military Medical Ethics: Issues Regarding Dual Loyalties, which brought together academic, military, human rights, and health professionals to discuss these ethical challenges. The workshop examined two case studies: decisions regarding returning a servicemember to duty after a closed head injury, and decisions on actions by health professionals regarding a hunger strike by detainees. The workshop also addressed the need for improvements in medical ethics training and outlined steps for organizations to take in supporting better ethical awareness and use of ethical standards.