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Ethics and War in the 21St Century Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 20:16 09 May 2016 Ethics and War in the 21st Century Ethics and War in the 21st Century explores the ethical implications of war in the contemporary world. The author, a leading theorist of warfare, explains why it is of crucial importance that Western countries should continue to apply traditional ethical rules and practices in war, even when engaging with international terrorist groups. The book uses the work of the late American philosopher Richard Rorty to explain the need to make ethical rules central to the conduct of military opera- tions. Arguing that the question of ethics was re-opened by the ‘War on Terror’, the book then examines America’s post-9/11 redefinition of its own prevailing discourse of war. It ends with a discussion of other key challenges to the ethics of war, such as the rise of private security companies and the use of robots in war. In exploring these issues, this book seeks to place ethics at the centre of debates about the conduct of future warfare. This book will be of great interest to all students of military ethics, war studies, mil- itary history and strategic studies in general, and to military colleges in particular. Christopher Coker is Professor of International Relations, LSE and Visiting Professor at the Staff College, Oslo. He is the author of many books on war, most recently The Warrior Ethos (Routledge 2007). Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 20:16 09 May 2016 LSE International Studies Series Editors: John Kent, Christopher Coker, Fred Halliday, Dominic Lieven and Karen Smith The International Studies series is based on the LSE’s oldest research centre and, like the LSE itself, was established to promote interdisciplinary studies. The CIS facilitates research into many different aspects of the international community and produces interdisciplinary research into the international system as it experi- ences the forces of globalisation. As the capacity of domestic change to produce global consequences increases, so does the need to explore areas which cannot be confined within a single discipline or area of study. The series hopes to focus on the impact of cultural changes on foreign relations, the role of strategy and for- eign policy and the impact of international law and human rights on global politics. It is intended to cover all aspects of foreign policy, including the histori- cal and contemporary forces of empire and imperialism, the importance of domestic links to the international roles of states and non-state actors, particularly in Europe, and the relationship between development studies, international politi- cal economy and regional actors on a comparative basis, but is happy to include any aspect of the international with an interdisciplinary aspect. American Policy Toward Israel The power and limits of beliefs Michael Thomas The Warrior Ethos Military culture and the war on terror Christopher Coker Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 20:16 09 May 2016 The New American Way of War Military culture and the political utility of force Benjamin Buley Ethics and War in the 21st Century Christopher Coker Ethics and War in the 21st Century Christopher Coker Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 20:16 09 May 2016 First published 2008 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2008 Christopher Coker All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Coker, Christopher. Ethics and war in the 21st Century / Christopher Coker p.cm. ISBN 978-0-415-45282-3 (pbk.) – ISBN 978-0-415-45280-9 (hardback) – ISBN 978-0-203-93089-2 (e-book) 1. War (Philosophy) 2. War–Moral and ethical aspects. 3. War on Terrorism, 2001- I. Title. II. Title: Ethics and war in the 21st century. U21.2.C6396 2008 172’.42–dc22 Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 20:16 09 May 2016 2007034547 ISBN 0-203-93089-4 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 978-0-415-45280-9 (hbk) ISBN 978-0-415-45282-3 (pbk) ISBN 978-0-203-93089-2 (ebk) ISBN 0-415-45280-5 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-45282-1 (pbk) ISBN 0-203-93089-4 (ebk) These moral laws Of nature and of nations (William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida) Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 20:16 09 May 2016 Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 20:16 09 May 2016 Contents Preface ix 1 The war on terror 1 A new discourse on war? 1 Richard Rorty and the ethics of war 7 Conclusion 15 2 Etiquettes of atrocity 17 Etiquettes of atrocity 17 Why we take prisoners of war 24 Discourses on war 30 Keeping to the discourse 35 The United States and Vietnam 36 Carl Schmitt and the Theory of the Partisan 44 Conclusion 52 3 Changing the discourse 54 Germany and the Eastern Front 1941–5 54 Algeria and the guerre revolutionaire 61 Israel and the intifada 67 Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 20:16 09 May 2016 Conclusion 74 4 A new discourse 77 Excluding from the discourse on war: from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib 77 Is it a war? 79 A new paradigm? 87 New wars, new paradigms 95 Conclusion 112 viii Contents 5 Grammars of killing 114 Grammars of killing 115 Respecting our enemies 124 Non-lethal weapons 127 Conclusion 131 6 The unconditional imperative 132 Micro-management of the battlefield 134 Corporate warriors? 138 Asimov’s children 143 Conclusion 152 7 Back to the Greeks 155 Back to the Greeks? 155 Simone Weil and The Iliad 157 Reading Thucydides 160 What is Hecuba to him? 165 8 The heuristics of fear 169 The ambiguity of peace 170 Towards the future 174 Notes 176 Bibliography 189 Index 193 Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 20:16 09 May 2016 Preface Dear Mom and Dad: The war that has taken my life, and many thousands of others before me. It is amoral, unlawful, and an atrocity … 1 These were the opening words of a letter left at home by an American soldier, to be opened if he did not return. They were the first words his parents read after they were told he had died in the field. Every war, we are told, is an atrocity. Even to suggest that it can be moral – or teach moral lessons – seems quite perverse to many people. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien, who served in Vietnam, tells us that ‘a true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behaviour, nor restrain men from doing things men have always done’. If it seems to contain a message or convey a lesson, don’t believe it.2 A moment’s reflection, however, will reveal that atrocities are actually part of the landscape of war. All killing is atrocious, but that in itself does not delegit- imise war. To understand war, writes Dave Grossman in his seminal book On Killing, we must understand the protocols of atrocity. When we go to war we try to reduce them to a minimum. We even have etiquettes prescribing what we can and cannot do in order to distinguish the act of killing from the act of murder as sharply as possible.3 We are permitted to target some people, but not others. When we kill we are expected to do so proportionately and within reason. We are not allowed to kill indiscriminately. As for those we take prisoner, we are rule-bound to keep them alive until they can be repatriated at the end of hostilities. Such pro- Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 20:16 09 May 2016 tocols are as old as recorded history. They can be traced back to the ancient Egyptians. They cross the barriers of culture as well as time. The War on Terror proclaimed by President Bush in 2001 has produced a series of responses and practices that have re-opened the question of ethics and, in the process, divided the US and Europe in much the same way that Israel’s response to the second intifada has divided it from its allies. I discovered this at first hand when I attended a conference in Norfolk, Virginia in 2003. Its theme was ‘On the Cusp operations’, a term of art which never really caught on. However, the term was applied to those hybrid operations which, in the case of Iraq and Afghanistan, the x Preface US and UK have found themselves fighting (and for which they discovered that they were largely unprepared).4 I was invited to give a lecture on the ethics of counter-insurgency warfare. Following my talk, a senior British general came up to me. ‘I liked your talk,’ he remarked. ‘You were spot on, but I’m afraid they don’t get it, do they?’ I was not surprised by his observation.
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