What is “defense and security contracting”?
This simple phrase refers to an enormous diversity of private commercial enterprises that support military operations. They can be either combat-related or not. Typically, national defense departments have hired private firms to do work in three broad areas:...
We hear people referring to “cyberspace” all the time, but what exactly is it?
“Cyber” is derived from an ancient Greek noun referring to a “space” or a domain. The slightly redundant term “cyberspace” was first coined to popularity by science fiction writer William...
What is the just war tradition?
Several times in the opening chapters we made reference in passing to the “just war tradition,” but, just like the concept of military ethics itself, this may be a phrase that is quite unfamiliar to a great many...
What is “humanitarian military intervention”?
Humanitarian interventions (HI) are among the list of military operations other than war, discussed briefly in chapter 5. As the name implies, the goal here is strictly to provide assistance to victims of natural tragedy or political crisis, quite...
Does military ethics apply to matters other than declaring and waging war?
Military personnel are stationed in military posts and bases throughout their own countries and may be deployed on a continuing basis in other parts of the world. From there they participate in...
How can we talk about ethics in war, when people are killing each other and deliberately inflicting destruction and misery on one another?
This question expresses a common misconception that has a grain of truth. Of course killing people and destroying property are morally wrong in virtually all...
Isn’t this idea of ethics and professional conduct in war a relatively recent concept?
It is certainly reasonable to conclude that the moral concerns and moral sensibilities enshrined in relatively recent international conventions to protect the rights of war’s vulnerable victims (discussed in the...
If, as the cliché goes, “All’s fair in love and war,” then how can there be laws or rules in combat?
The idea that warfare is chaotic, lawless strife was captured by the famous remark of the Roman senator and orator Cicero, in the...
Why Military Ethics?
In 2003, during the first year of the American-led military intervention in Iraq, a contingent of reserve army personnel in charge of the Abu Ghraib prison was discovered to have engaged in numerous acts of torture and abuse of prisoners. Torture...
What are “unmanned systems”?
This is the generic term coined by engineers for remotely piloted or remotely operated devices such as robots or drones. Unmanned systems include those that are programmed to operate by themselves (automatic and autonomous systems), as well as those that...
