The Morality of Private War

The Morality of Private War
Author: James Pattison
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2014
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0199639701

The private military industry has been growing rapidly since the end of the Cold War. The Morality of Private War uses normative political theory to assess the leading moral arguments for and against the use of private military and security companies.

The Morality of Private War

The Morality of Private War
Author: James Pattison
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2014-05-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0191663689

The increased use of private military and security companies (PMSCs) is often said to be one of the most significant changes to the military in recent times. The Morality of Private War: The Challenge of Private Military and Security Companies provides a detailed assessment of the moral arguments for and against the use of PMSCs. In doing so, it considers objections to private force at the employee, employer, and international levels. For instance, does the potential for private contractors to possess mercenary motives affect whether they can use military force? Does a state abdicate an essential responsibility when it employs PMSCs? Is the use of PMSCs morally preferable to the alternatives, such as an all-volunteer force and a conscripted army? What are the effects of treating military services as a commodity for the governing rules of the international system? Overall, The Morality of Private War argues that private military force leads to not only contingent moral problems stemming from the lack of effective regulation, but also several deeper, more fundamental problems that mean that public force should be preferred. Nevertheless, it also argues that, despite these problems, PMSCs can sometimes (although rarely) be morally permissibly used. Ultimately, The Morality of Private War argues that the challenges posed by the use of PMSCs mean that we need to reconsider how military force ought to be organized and to reform our thinking about the ethics of war and, in particular, Just War Theory.

Morality and War

Morality and War
Author: David Fisher
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2011-03-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 019161582X

With the ending of the strategic certainties of the Cold War, the need for moral clarity over when, where and how to start, conduct and conclude war has never been greater. There has been a recent revival of interest in the just war tradition. But can a medieval theory help us answer twenty-first century security concerns? David Fisher explores how just war thinking can and should be developed to provide such guidance. His in-depth study examines philosophical challenges to just war thinking, including those posed by moral scepticism and relativism. It explores the nature and grounds of moral reasoning; the relation between public and private morality; and how just war teaching needs to be refashioned to provide practical guidance not just to politicians and generals but to ordinary service people. The complexity and difficulty of moral decision-making requires a new ethical approach - here characterised as virtuous consequentialism - that recognises the importance of both the internal quality and external effects of agency; and of the moral principles and virtues needed to enact them. Having reinforced the key tenets of just war thinking, Fisher uses these to address contemporary security issues, including the changing nature of war, military pre-emption and torture, the morality of the Iraq war, and humanitarian intervention. He concludes that the just war tradition provides not only a robust but an indispensable guide to resolve the security challenges of the twenty-first century.

The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of War

The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of War
Author: Seth Lazar
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 496
Release: 2018-01-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199944393

Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest, among both philosophers, legal scholars, and military experts, on the ethics of war. Due in part due to post 9/11 events, this resurgence is also due to a growing theoretical sophistication among scholars in this area. Recently there has been very influential work published on the justificaton of killing in self-defense and war, and the topic of the ethics of war is now more important than ever as a discrete field. The 28 commissioned chapters in this Handbook will present a comprehensive overview of the field as well as make significant and novel contributions, and collectively they will set the terms of the debate for the next decade. Lazar and Frowe will invite the leading scholars in the field to write on topics that are new to them, making the volume a compilation of fresh ideas rather than a rehash of earlier work. The volume will be dicided into five sections: Method, History, Resort, Conduct, and Aftermath. The contributors will be a mix of junior and senior figures, and will include well known scholars like Michael Walzer, Jeff McMahan, and David Rodin.

The Routledge Handbook to Rethinking Ethics in International Relations

The Routledge Handbook to Rethinking Ethics in International Relations
Author: Birgit Schippers
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2020-05-21
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1317041763

Discussing cutting-edge debates in the field of international ethics, this key volume builds on existing work in the normative study of international relations. It responds to a substantial appetite for scholarship that challenges established approaches and examines new perspectives on international ethics, and that appraises the ethical implications of problems occupying students and scholars of international relations in the twenty-first century. The contributions, written by a team of international scholars, provide authoritative surveys and interventions into the field of international ethics. Focusing on new and emerging ethical challenges to international relations, and approaching existing challenges through the lens of new theoretical and methodological frameworks, the book is structured around five themes: • New directions in international ethics • Ethical actors and practices in international relations • The ethics of climate change, globalization, and health • Technology and ethics in international relations • The ethics of global security Interdisciplinary in its scope, this book will be an important resource for scholars and students in the fields of politics and international relations, philosophy, law and sociology, and a useful reference for anyone who wishes to acquire ‘ethical competence’ in the area of international relations.

Moral Responsibility in Twenty-First-Century Warfare

Moral Responsibility in Twenty-First-Century Warfare
Author: Steven C. Roach
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2020-09-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1438480024

2021 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Moral Responsibility in Twenty-First-Century Warfare explores the complex relationship between just war theory and the ethics of autonomous weapons systems (AWS). One of the challenges facing ethicists of war, particularly just war theorists, is that AWS is an applicative concept that seems, in many ways, to lie beyond the human(ist) scope of the just war theory tradition. The book examines the various ethical gaps between just war theory and the legal and moral status of AWS, addresses the limits of both traditional and revisionist just war theory, and proposes ways of bridging some of these gaps. It adopts a dualistic notion of moral responsibility—or differing, related notions of moral responsibility and legitimate authority—to study the conflicts and contradictions of legitimizing the autonomous weapons that are designed to secure peace and neutralize the effects of violence. Focusing on the changing conditions and dynamics of accountability, responsibility, autonomy, and rights in twenty-first-century warfare, the volume sheds light on the effects of violence and the future ethics of modern warfare.

Is Just War Possible?

Is Just War Possible?
Author: Christopher Finlay
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2018-11-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1509526536

The idea that war is sometimes justified is deeply embedded in public consciousness. But it is only credible so long as we believe that the ethical standards of just war are in fact realizable in practice. In this engaging book, Christopher Finlay elucidates the assumptions underlying just war theory and defends them from a range of objections, arguing that it is a regrettable but necessary reflection of the moral realities of international politics. Using a range of historical and contemporary examples, he demonstrates the necessity of employing the theory on the basis of careful moral appraisal of real-life political landscapes and striking a balance between theoretical ideals and the practical realities of conflict. This book will be a crucial guide to the complexities of just war theory for all students and scholars of the ethics and political theory of war.

Public and Private Morality

Public and Private Morality
Author: Stuart Hampshire
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 156
Release: 1978-10-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780521293525

Collection of essays by well-known British and American philosophers on the moral principles by which public policies and political decisions should be judged: does effective political action necessarily involve and justify actions which the individual would regard as unacceptable in "private" morality?