The Utility of Military Ethics in the New Zealand Army’S Contemporary Operational Environment
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To Define & Control: The Utility of Military Ethics in the New Zealand Army’s Contemporary Operational Environment A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Political Science in the University of Canterbury by Matthew William Rout University of Canterbury 2009 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Acronyms and Abbreviations 4 List of Figures 6 Acknowledgements 7 Abstract 8 Introduction: Conflict, Militaries and Control 9 Chapter 1- Military Ethics 15 The Preventative Function 19 War Convention 20 Discrimination 21 Proportionality 23 Law of Armed Conflict 24 Rules of Engagement 27 The Constructive Function 30 Professionalism 30 Military Ethos 35 Military Values 38 Internal Dynamics 43 Chapter 2- Military Ethics: Contemporary Utility 47 Hypothesis 52 Chapter 3- New Zealand Army: Contemporary Operational Environment 55 Context: Conflict 61 Location 61 Technique 66 Combatants 75 Response: Deployment 79 Multinational 79 Joint 81 Civil-Military 82 Expanded Mandate 85 Media and Communication 89 Justification 94 Conclusion 97 Chapter 4- History of the New Zealand Army Operational Environment 101 2 World War Two 102 Korea 107 Kashmir 110 Malaya 114 Vietnam 117 Rhodesia 122 Cambodia 125 Former Yugoslavia 129 Conclusion 135 Chapter 5- Case Study: Timor Leste 139 Introduction 139 Specific Operational Environment 140 Context: Conflict 146 Location 146 Technique and Combatants 149 Response: Deployment 162 Multinational 162 Joint 165 Civil-Military 166 Expanded Mandate 169 Media and Communication 174 Justification 180 Conclusion 183 Conclusion: To Define and Control 189 Summary of Findings 189 Applicability 197 Unique Characteristics of the New Zealand Army 203 Implications: New Zealand Army 204 Implications: International 208 Bibliography 211 3 Acronyms and Abbreviations ADF: Australian Defence Force AVF: All-Volunteer Force AO: Area of operations Brig.: Brigadier CMA: Civil Military Affairs. CMF: Commonwealth Monitoring Force CO: Combat operation COE: Contemporary operational environment Col.: Colonel Cpl. Corporal FLOC: Future Land Operating Concept IGO: Intergovernmental organisation INTERFET: International Force East Timor Gen.: General LFCR: Land Force Capabilities Review LOAC: Law of armed conflict Lt.: Lieutenant Lt. Col.: Lieutenant Colonel Lt. Gen.: Lieutenant General Maj. Gen.: Major General MRLA: Malayan Races Liberation Army NGO: Non-governmental organisation NZ: New Zealand NZA: New Zealand Army NZ BATT: New Zealand Battalion NZBC: New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation NZDF: New Zealand Defence Force NZSAS: New Zealand Special Air Service OE: Operational environment 4 PKF: Peacekeeping force PKO: Peacekeeping operation PNG: Papua New Guinea PSO: Peace Support Operation Pte.: Private RAMSI: Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands RMA: Revolution in military affairs RNZAF: Royal New Zealand Air Force RNZN: Royal New Zealand Navy ROE: Rules of engagement SASO: Stability and support operations SNO: Senior national officer SOP: Standard operating procedure TBW: Three block war TNI: Indonesian National Army UN: United Nations UNAMET: United Nations Assistance Mission in East Timor UNMOGIP: United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan UNPROFOR: United Nations Protection Force UNTAET: United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor UNTAC: United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia US: United States VC: Victor Company WW2: World War Two 5 List of Figures US Rules of Engagement 28 Canadian Military Ethos 38 NZ Army Spectrum of Military Operations 60 NZ Army Future Land Operating Concept 60 Summary of NZA OE Continuum and Implications for Military Ethics 138 Map of Timor-Leste 140 6 Acknowledgements This thesis is dedicated to my late father, whose dry wit, sharp intellect and genuine humility I can only hope to emulate. My mother deserves fulsome praise for putting up with my endless japes and for providing the vital emotional, editorial and financial support over the years. I would like to thank my son, Indy, who, though not especially thrilled by the particulars of military ethics, is my motivation. Further thanks to my girlfriend, Kat, my sister, Josephine, and my friends. I would like to thank my supervisors, John Henderson and Jim Ockey. In particular, I want to thank Jim for his tireless guidance and incisive humour throughout this project. Thanks also go to the indomitable Jill Dolby for all of her help. Finally, thanks to everyone in the department, especially Tom Lamb for his editorial work. 7 Abstract Military ethics serve as a normative code of behaviour for the armed forces of a state, acting as a mechanism of definition and control within the force, between the force and its client, and between the force, its adversaries and the wider public. They have two, intrinsically linked, functions: a preventative function, which defines the moral and legal parameters of conduct, and a constructive function, which creates and maintains an effective and controllable force. Preceded by the code of chivalry, they were largely a creation of the era of conventional interstate warfare that was waged across the European continent from the Treaty of Westphalia through to the desolate end of the Second World War; yet, the operations upon which armed forces, and in particular, the New Zealand Army are deployed have changed, dramatically. Wars no longer, current operations are generally justified on moral principles and involve a multinational, joint and interagency deployment sent to intervene in an irregular, intrastate conflict occurring in an underdeveloped region and conducted under the intense glare of the media. This disjuncture between the changing nature of operations and the context in which military ethics were formulated provides the fundamental question for the thesis: if the milieu in which military ethics developed has changed significantly, what is their current utility? Using the New Zealand Army as the frame of reference, first the contemporary operational environment and then the specific operational environment in Timor-Leste were examined to assess the current utility of military ethics. It was found that the preventative function has an increasing utility because it ensures conduct is within expected norms in an era where the perception of the adversary, the local populace and the domestic and international audience is key to operational success. Despite the reduction in conflict intensity, the constructive function has a remaining utility through its mediation and amelioration of the stressors engendered by the growing complexity of the operational environment. The retention of utility for the constructive function appears to have been facilitated by an adaptation of the warrior ethos, from a narrow traditional outlook to a broad and comprehensive modern interpretation. 8 Introduction Conflict, Militaries and Control ―The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.‖ Sun Tsu.1 ―Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies?‖ St Augustine.2 War, conflict and confrontation; insurgency, revolution and rebellion, and the numerous other permutations of organised violence, are a seemingly inescapable part of the human condition. As Michael Howard puts it: ―[w]ar … is not a condition of generalized and random violence … It is on the contrary a highly social activity – an activity indeed which demands from the groups which engage in it a unique intensity of societal organization and control‖; a proposition which engenders the converse: that the societal organisation and control required shape the conflict itself.3 These various permutations of organised violence, from here on referred to as conflict, reflect their protagonists‘ history, culture and political-economic systems and take place on both a physical and mental plane.4 As such they are generally bound and limited by the overall contexts in which they occur; a position argued by Martin van Creveld: ―War, far from being the province of unbridled force, is a cultural activity and has always been the subject to limitations pertaining to prisoners, non-combatants, and weapons, inter alia… The paradox is that war, the most confused and 1 Sun Tsu, The Art of War (London: Oxford University Press, 1971), 1. 2 Saint Augustine, The City of God (New York: Fathers of the Church Inc., 1950), 4.4. 3 Michael Howard, ―Temperamenta Belli: Can War be Controlled,‖ in Restraints on War: Studies in the Limitation of Armed Conflict, Michael Howard, ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), 1-3. 4 The terms war, conflict, confrontation, insurgency, revolution and rebellion all refer to different types of violence, all organised to differing degrees. The reason the thesis will use the term conflict will become clear later on, suffice to say here that the contemporary operational environment is chaotic and complex and rather than spend reams searching for a near unobtainable categorisation the thesis will launch into the main body of work with the understanding that as this progresses both a definition of sorts and a reason for the modifier ‗of sorts‘ will become obvious. 9 confusing of all human activities, is also one of the most organised. If armed conflict is to be successfully waged, then many trained individuals must co- operate. People cannot co-operate, nor organizations exist, unless they obey a common code of behaviour. This code