Making the Military Moral ─ Contemporary Challenges and Responses in Military Ethics Education

This book offers insightful and constructive advice on ethics education for the military, both theoretical and practical, about how situations can be improved and the means that could and should be employed towards this end.

The media continue to headline instances of grossly unethical behaviour in areas of conflict by members of Western armed forces with immeasurable and perhaps irreparable harm to any campaign to win the 'hearts and minds' of the people and to any claim by Western democracies to hold the moral high ground. The solution to the problem is perceived to lie in education with military personnel trained and educated so that they will 'do the right thing' in all circumstances, no matter what the pressures might be on them to deviate from the high moral standards expected of them. In previous books in this series, authors provided overviews of the past and present state of the provision of ethics education in the training and education establishments of Western liberal democracies. The authors did not look, at least in any detail, to the future. By building upon the background material contained in previous volumes, this volume will fill this gap. Drawing lessons from recent examples of unethical conduct, this original book offers insightful and constructive advice, both theoretical and practical, as to how situations can be improved and on the means that could and should be employed towards this end.

This book will be of much interest to students of military studies, ethics and international relations.