Reciprocity and the Warrior Ethos

Asymmetric Killing ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198851462.003.0004 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 59-80

Author(s):

Neil C. Renic

Keyword(s):

Ethical Status ◽

Physical Risk ◽

Warrior Ethos ◽

Legitimate Violence ◽

Ancient Warfare

This chapter locates the role of reciprocal risk within the warrior ethos. It first outlines that exposure to personal, physical risk has long been regarded as a key element in the ethos-based conception of legitimate violence. It demonstrates this through analysis of ancient warfare, both Greek and Roman, as well as the medieval code of chivalry. As will be further shown, however, the warrior ethos is an evolving framework; one that gives increasing consideration to factors such as restraint and professionalism in determinations of ethical status. This will be confirmed through analysis of premodern, modern, and ‘post-heroic’ warfare. As this chapter will illustrate, the adaptive quality of the warrior ethos is a key explanatory factor in the historical resolution of asymmetry-challenges.

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Military Sniping

Asymmetric Killing ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198851462.003.0006 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 107-130

Author(s):

Neil C. Renic

Keyword(s):

Significant Role ◽

Historical Overview ◽

World War ◽

The First World War ◽

Just War Tradition ◽

The Asymmetry ◽

Warrior Ethos ◽

Legitimate Violence ◽

First World

This chapter explores the asymmetry-challenge of military sniping. It first provides a historical overview of the practice, beginning with early forms of ranged killing and concluding with the sharpshooting of the First World War. The asymmetric potential of this technology will be detailed, as well as the criticism this advantage attracted. The chapter will then clarify that in contrast to its tension with the warrior ethos, the asymmetry-challenge of sniping did not impact the Just War Tradition to a meaningful degree. The chapter concludes by examining the gradual resolution of the asymmetry-challenge of sniping, focusing on the increasingly significant role of combat responsibility in determinations of ethically legitimate violence.

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Asymmetric Killing

10.1093/oso/9780198851462.001.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Neil C. Renic

Keyword(s):

Just War ◽

The United States ◽

Conflict Zone ◽

Fundamental Challenge ◽

Physical Risk ◽

Contested Terrain ◽

Just War Tradition ◽

Warrior Ethos ◽

Moral Justifications

This book offers an engaging and historically informed account of the moral challenge of radically asymmetric violence—warfare conducted by one party in the near-complete absence of physical risk, across the full scope of a conflict zone. What role does physical risk and material threat play in the justifications for killing in war? And crucially, is there a point at which battlefield violence becomes so one-directional as to undermine the moral basis for its use? In order to answers these questions, Asymmetric Killing delves into the morally contested terrain of the warrior ethos and Just War Tradition, locating the historical and contemporary role of reciprocal risk within both. This book also engages two historical episodes of battlefield asymmetry, military sniping and manned aerial bombing. Both modes of violence generated an imbalance of risk between opponents so profound as to call into question their permissibility. These now-resolved controversies will then be contrasted with the UAV-exclusive violence of the United States, robotic killing conducted in the absence of a significant military ground presence in conflict theatres such as Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. As will be revealed, the radical asymmetry of this latter case is distinct, undermining reciprocal risk at the structural level of war. Beyond its more resolvable tension with the warrior ethos, UAV-exclusive violence represents a fundamental challenge to the very coherence of the moral justifications for killing in war.

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Cognitive Health Counseling 40+

Zeitschrift für Gesundheitspsychologie ◽

10.1026/0943-8149/a000085 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 24-33 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Anne Eschen ◽

Franzisca Zehnder ◽

Mike Martin

Keyword(s):

Outcome Variable ◽

Pilot Phase ◽

Subjective Memory ◽

Cognitive Health ◽

Health Counseling ◽

Agents Of Change ◽

Main Outcome Variable ◽

Further Development

This article introduces Cognitive Health Counseling 40+ (CH.CO40+), an individualized intervention that is conceptually based on the orchestration model of quality-of-life management ( Martin & Kliegel, 2010 ) and aims at improving satisfaction with cognitive health in adults aged 40 years and older. We describe the theoretically deduced characteristics of CH.CO40+, its target group, its multifactorial nature, its individualization, the application of subjective and objective measures, the role of participants as agents of change, and the rationale for choosing participants’ satisfaction with their cognitive health as main outcome variable. A pilot phase with 15 middle-aged and six older adults suggests that CH.CO40+ attracts, and may be particularly suitable for, subjective memory complainers. Implications of the pilot data for the further development of the intervention are discussed.

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