Suchergebnisse

This paper explores the legal implications of objections of conscience against participation in particular military activities or conflicts (selective conscientious objection) as these are expressed by professional members of the armed forces. It does so by exploring how established human rights principles and norms related to the right of conscientious objection to military service may be extended to professional members of the armed forces seeking a discharge from military duties. The paper outlines applicable human rights standards relating to objections of conscience and compares how objections by professional members of the armed forces are dealt with by the judiciary in the United Kingdom and Germany. Finally, the paper uses empirical research data to map the recognition of selective conscientious objection to military duties in other member states of the Council of Europe that operate with fully professional armies and provides an extensive analysis of state practice identifying significant gaps, best practices and future challenges for the Council of Europe's member states.

"The deployment of Autonomous Weapons gives rise to ongoing debate in society and at the United Nations, in the context of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Yet little empirical research has been done on this topic. This volume fills that gap by offering an empirical study based on military personnel and civilians working at the Dutch Ministry of Defence. It yields insight into how Autonomous Weapons are perceived by the military and general public; and which moral values are considered important in relation to their deployment. The research approach used is the Value-Sensitive Design (VSD) method that allows for the consideration of human values throughout the design process of technology. The outcome indicates that military personnel and civilians attribute more agency (the capacity to think and plan) to an Autonomous Weapon than to a Human Operated Drone. In addition, it is clear that common ground exists between military and societal groups in their perception of the values of human dignity and anxiety. These two values arise often in the discourse, and addressing them is essential when considering the ethics of the deployment of Autonomous Weapons. The text of this volume is also offered in parallel French and German translation"--

US officials often portray the Chinese government as having few, if any, ethical boundaries in its pursuit of power. This article argues China, like Western countries, has a rich tradition of constraining this pursuit that can impact the nation's policies. With a focus on the relationship between ways of war and ethics of war, it relies on traditional and contemporary scholarship from both the East and the West to highlight differences in how each military views the practical and ethical aspects of war and how these views can interact. Understanding the ethical logic available to one's adversaries will allow US leaders and planners to leverage China's behavior and optimally shape US policies and actions.

In 'Savage Warfare: Violence and the Rule of Colonial Difference in Early British Counterinsurgency' (History Workshop Journal 85, 2018), Kim Wagner rightly argues that violence was a ubiquitous feature of colonial rule and that this fact must be acknowledged if we are to fully confront the legacies of empire, and their implications for conflict today.1 In presenting his case, however, Wagner makes serious historical errors as well as the sweeping accusation that military historians, especially those working in military education, are guilty of abandoning the scholarly standards of the historical discipline, perpetuating indifference to suffering outside the Western World, and having 'weaponized' history to justify military interventions and coercive and unjust treatment of non-white populations. These unsubstantiated accusations constitute an attack on the ethical and scholarly integrity of an entire field of history and the scholars within it. We have written this response to address the deficiencies in Wagner's assertions about the use of expanding bullets and colonial military conduct, the historiography of colonial violence, and the current state of what he calls 'parochial military history'.

This book raises questions about the just war tradition through a critical examination of its revival and by juxtaposing it with a literary phenomenology of war. Recent public debate about war has leaned heavily on a just-war tradition dating back many centuries. This book examines the recent revival of that tradition in the United States and Britain, arguing that it is less coherent and comprehensive as an approach to the ethical issues arising from war than is generally supposed, and that it is inconsistent in important ways with the theology on whic

Presentation at the "Zagreb Applied Ethics Conference 2017: The Ethics of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence". Matica hrvatska - ZAGREB, CROATIA. 5-7 JUNE, 2017. ; The social regulation of robotic systems with some elements of inbuilt artificial intelligence, and capable of interacting with the physical world without human control, poses challenges of extraordinary complexity. In particular, when their characteristics make them suitable for being used in military operations as autonomous devices under specific conditions. My purpose is to do a case-study research about the viability of some elements of "embedded Ethics" in different devices, with built-in sensors and a variable range of functionality, starting with Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS). Based on the revision of recent literature and prototypes, the expected results should give a clearer perspective about the viability of 'embedded Ethics' instructions in the programming of intelligent robotic systems, including those intended for military use. As a preliminary conclusion, the heterogeneity of designs, lethal capacity and degrees of functional complexity in operational contexts –highly unpredictable-, reinforces the importance of preserving human intervention in the decision loop, when the lapse for the sequence of decisions makes it possible. [Additional references available in: http://sl.ugr.es/zaec2017] ; La regulación social de los sistemas robóticos con elementos de inteligencia artificial incorporados, y capaces de interactuar con el mundo físico sin control humano, plantea desafíos de extraordinaria complejidad. En particular, cuando sus características los hacen aptos para ser utilizadas en operaciones militares como dispositivos autónomos bajo condiciones específicas. Mi propósito es realizar una investigación de casos relevantes para estudiar la viabilidad de algunos elementos de "ética embebida" en diferentes dispositivos, con sensores incorporados y rango variable de funcionalidad, comenzando con los sistemas de armas autónomas (AWS). Una revisión de la literatura reciente y de diversos prototipos en desarrollo podría ofrecer una perspectiva más clara sobre la viabilidad de instrucciones éticas incorporadas en la programación de sistemas robóticos inteligentes, incluidos los destinados al uso militar. Como conclusión preliminar, la heterogeneidad de los diseños, capacidad letal y grados de complejidad funcional en contextos operativos -muy impredecibles- refuerzan la importancia de preservar la intervención humana en el bucle de decisión, cuando el lapso de la secuencia de decisiones lo hace posible. [Additional references available in: http://sl.ugr.es/zaec2017] ; Supported by R+D Project [ref. FFI2016-79000-P]: "Artificial Intelligence and moral bio-enhancement. Ethical aspects" (IP: F.D. Lara). State Program for the Promotion of Scientific and Technical Research of Excellence, Subprogram of Knowledge Generation. Oct. 2016 - Sept. 2019.

The social regulation of robotic systems with some elements of inbuilt artificial intelligence, and capable of interacting with the physical world without human control, poses challenges of extraordinary complexity. In particular, when their characteristics make them suitable for being used in military operations as autonomous devices under specific conditions. My purpose is to do a case-study research about the viability of some elements of "embedded Ethics" in different devices, with built-in sensors and a variable range of functionality, starting with Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS). Based on the revision of recent literature and prototypes, the expected results should give a clearer perspective about the viability of 'embedded Ethics' instructions in the programming of intelligent robotic systems, including those intended for military use. As a preliminary conclusion, the heterogeneity of designs, lethal capacity and degrees of functional complexity in operational contexts –highly unpredictable-, reinforces the importance of preserving human intervention in the decision loop, when the lapse for the sequence of decisions makes it possible. [Additional references available in: http://sl.ugr.es/zaec2017] ; Supported by R+D Project [ref. FFI2016-79000-P]: "Artificial Intelligence and moral bio-enhancement. Ethical aspects" (IP: F.D. Lara). State Program for the Promotion of Scientific and Technical Research of Excellence, Subprogram of Knowledge Generation. Oct. 2016 - Sept. 2019.

In the face of such 'unspeakable truths,' wouldn't it be better to simply, quietly bow out?" (Kora Andrieu: 'Sorry for the Genocide', 2009). This book affirms this question regarding colonial crimes through an interdisciplinary approach. For coming to terms with massive systemic injustice, not only the historic foundations and legal questions are relevant, but also political viewpoints as well as peace ethics. The book reveals: In the face of extreme violence, even genocide, a political apology can be an effective tool for conflict transformation, even when the injustice is far in the past.

How can ethics be a militarist practice? This article offers an answer to this question using a study of teaching at Israeli pre-military academies for high-school graduates. It argues that when ethics operates as a practice of subject formation, it is quite possible for it to reinforce the militarist process whereby citizens are turned into soldiers. Based on interviews with teaching staff and participant observation at these academies, this article offers an in-depth analysis of their pedagogy that highlights their increasingly prominent contribution to Israeli militarism. Israeli pre-military academies combine ethics with a programme of military preparation such that military service is presented as an opportunity for individual flourishing and participation in war is imbued with an ideology of ethical soldiering. Given the significance of Israel/Palestine as a theatre of violent conflict, this article argues that this case has wider significance for our understanding of the nature of militarism and of the relationship between ethics and war. It suggests that ethics has become increasingly bound up with militarism, and that there are therefore clear limits to its capacity to constrain the violence of war.