Sun Tzu’s essays The Art of War are the oldest known treatise on this topic but they have never been surpassed in terms of content and depth of understanding. They are characterised by concentrated ...wisdom on warfare. Compared to Carl von Clausewitz, Sun Tzu has a clearer vision, deeper understanding of preparation and combat itself and this makes him modern for eternity. Clausewitz wrote more than two thousand years later but he is more indebted to this period than Sun Tzu and this makes him rather obsolete nowadays even though some of his ideas are applicable, even though they can be applied only within the limitations of the moral and ethic values applied in a particular territory. If using the approach stemming from Sun Tzu’s oriental war philosophy it is necessary to understand these ideas and to implement them correctly. In this respect we find it very important to point out to the incorrect trend that can be identified in the studies of western literature dealing with this war philosophy.
Inherent to warfare are armed conflict and an acknowledged enemy against whom one is fighting. Yet relations with that enemy are defined as much in the discourse of war as on the battlefield. Words ...mobilize both martial and symbolic power by identifying the antagonist and morally justifying one’s own cause at the expense of the opposition. Scholars have long been aware that the Spanish-led conquest of the Americas was a discursive phenomenon as well as a military one. However, the influence of just war philosophy on conquistadors’ representations of their indigenous foes has remained largely unexplored. In repelling the Spanish-led invasion, Highland Maya communities employed various strategies that drew on the cunning and deceit that they so highly valued in their warriors. The Spaniards, however, were highly critical of such conduct, which did not conform to their traditional conceptions of just war. To them, such comportment marked their opponents as insurgents resisting not only their rightful place in the Spanish Empire but also civilization more broadly. In condemning their Highland Maya enemies as an ethical “other,” the conquistadors articulated a just cause for their conquest waged to subdue a rebellious population. By asserting moral superiority in the face of a treacherous and malevolent adversary, they legitimized not only their quest for power in the Americas but also the often excessively violent means that they employed to this end.
The Ethics of War Rodin, David, Dr; Sorabji, Richard, Professor
2016, 2006, 2007-11-01, 2020-09-10
eBook
The Ethics of War traces how different cultures involved in present conflicts have addressed problems over the centuries. Distinguished authors reflect how the Greco-Roman world, Byzantium, the ...Christian just war tradition, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and the Geneva Conventions have addressed recurrent ethical issues of war. Cutting edge essays by prominent modern theorists address vital contemporary issues including asymmetric war, preventive war, human rights and humanitarian intervention.
There is extensive discussion in current Just War literature about the normative principles which should govern the initiation of war (jus ad bellum) and also the conduct of war (jus in bello), but ...this is the first book to treat the important and difficult issue of justice after the end of war. Larry May examines the normative principles which should govern post-war practices such as reparations, restitution, reconciliation, retribution, rebuilding, proportionality and the Responsibility to Protect. He discusses the emerging international law literature on transitional justice and the problem of moving from a position of war and possible mass atrocity to a position of peace and reconciliation. He questions the Just War tradition, arguing that contingent pacifism is most in keeping with normative principles after war ends. His discussion is richly illustrated with contemporary examples and will be of interest to students of political and legal philosophy, law and military studies.
At the opening of the twenty-first century, while obviously the world is still struggling with violence and conflict, many commentators argue that there are many reasons for supposing that ...restrictions on the use of force are growing. The establishment of the International Criminal Court, the growing sophistication of international humanitarian law and the 'rebirth' of the just war tradition over the last fifty years are all taken as signs of this trend. This book argues that, on the contrary, the just war tradition, allied to a historically powerful and increasingly dominant conception of politics in general, is complicit with an expansion of the grounds of supposedly legitimate force, rather than a restriction of it. In offering a critique of this trajectory, 'Just War and International Order' also seeks to illuminate a worrying trend for international order more generally and consider what, if any, alternative there might be to it.
Cain's Crime Trzyna, Thomas
2018, 2018-05-31
eBook
Democracy requires a commitment to dialogue and deliberation, as well as a commitment to seek peaceful solutions. Is democracy possible in states that earn significant portions of their revenue from ...the manufacture and sales of arms, that give weapons away in huge numbers, and that turn quickly to violence in the face of difficulties? The proliferation of weapons is nearly as great a tragedy of the commons as global warming, and the evidence indicates that civilians are increasingly being targeted in wars. How large is the problem of war today? Given that the members of the UN Security Council are among the chief manufacturers of weapons, are there any useful mechanisms in place for limiting wars or the supply of deadly weapons? Is it time, in view of the callousness with which non-combatants are killed, to re-examine our basic reasons for valuing human life? Cain's Crime re-introduces an ethical theory popular at the dawn of the twentieth century and examines the extent of violence in the contemporary world, from neo-colonial wars, civil wars, freedom movements, and ethnic conflicts to the oldest war of all, the systematic and continuing murder of women in cultures where they are valued less than men.
In the seminalJust 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.
InJust 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.
This book challenges traditional and contemporary just war theorizing, by taking seriously the role of social practices and institutions in decisions to go to war. It argues that which substantive ...moral principles regarding the initiation of war are valid can depend upon the institutional processes within which the decisions are made. Traditional and mainstream contemporary just war theorists proceed as if institutions don’t exist or as if existing institutional resources for influencing decision-making are so negligible that they may be disregarded. They fail to consider the possibility that institutional innovations could improve recourse to war decisions and that the fact that this is so has important implications for the morality of war-making. The first six chapters of the book lay out the case for institutionalizing the just war—for rethinking just war theory with due regard for the fact that institutional realities and possibilities shape the morality of war. The last two chapters advance concrete, feasible proposals for much-needed institutional innovation.
I went looking in the canonical literary anthologies for New Zealand poems about the First World War. Ian Wedde and Harvey McQueen's 'The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse' (1985) provides Eileen ...Duggan mourning the murder of Rosa Luxembourg by the right-wing Freikorps in the immediate aftermath of the 1918 Armistice. The Jenny Bornholdt, Greg O'Brien and Mark Williams Oxford 'An Anthology of New Zealand Poetry in English' (1997) adds Katherine Mansfield's sonnet on the death of her brother, 'To L.H.B. (1894-1915)'. But there is precious little else; a remarkable silence about an event that is often referred to as nation-forming, as the experience of great loss and the feeling of betrayal (by Britain) around the Gallipoli campaign inaugurated what remains the country's most solemn day of the year, Anzac Day. It feels as if that line from 'Pōkarekare ana' - 'Wahtiwhati taku pene/ my pen is broken' - could be applied to the literary response to Te Pakanga Nui o te Ao Tuatahi/The First World War.
Since its inception, there has been a clear separation in international law between the law of war and the law of peace. The divide has been supported by a belief that war was the sole purview of the ...state. However, following the end of the Cold War, the nature of conflict changed. The move to a unipolar world, coupled with a new wave of democratisation and the increasing globalisation of information and economic power, are credited with triggering a surge in micro-nationalism and sometimes violent claims of self-determination. This has resulted in a shift in the balance of conflict from conventional, interstate wars, predominantly driven by political factors, to low-intensity, intrastate wars, predominantly driven by human factors.
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