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But as it turns out, succeeding as a soldier without a conscience is no small task. Interviews with current and former soldiers diagnosed with.
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This position has a double influence on my approach. First, I value the ethics of peace above military ethics. The primary goal is to achieve a just freedom and legal system in which elementary human rights are protected and other human rights are promoted. The goal of any military use of force can only be to attain peace through a just legal system. Secondly, the basic pacifist attitude is that nonviolence must be the first priority in any action one takes.

The primary goal of any education, be it private or public and thus including armies, must be a de-escalation of violence and ultimately peacefulness. The use of violence and force per se is never justified. Simply expressed, the realists are divided into two camps. The use of military force is simply a dirty business. Therefore, the only thing that is important is to win through military strategy and skills.

The means justify the ends.

A prince simply has to win and maintain his reign, then his methods will always be considered honorable and praised by everyone. I am convinced that these positions are no longer tenable, although some political scientists and some officers still adhere to them. The Geneva Conventions, the ad hoc U. Although not all of the mighty military states are unconditional members, people still share certain basic moral attitudes, and states generally adhere to customary international law.

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Ethics have to do with helping soldiers to internalize these basic moral principles. The third position against military ethics reduces military ethics to two principles, namely, uncritical loyalty and obedience. The army has the duty to obey; it is an instrument of the state and therefore must carry out orders without questioning them.

Samuel Huntington born , who became famous with his book The Clash of Civilizations, formulates this in the following way: … loyalty and obedience are the highest military virtues. He is judged not by the policies he implements, but rather by the promptness and efficiency with which he carries them out. His goal is to perfect an instrument of obedience; the uses to which that instrument is put are beyond his responsibility…. In my opinion, this position is no longer tenable. Huntington at least refers back to the idea that it must be a legal order, given by someone with full authority to issue it.

However, both the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals determined that this form of argument, simply obeying orders, can no longer be applied. World War II raised the question of whether there are illegal laws, as well as the question of whether what is legal is also legitimate. Finally, in this context, the question must be asked of whether an officer simply has a duty to his nation or also has a duty to a larger ideal, which I am convinced he does.

The question of when organized military force may be used or whether there is even such a thing as a bellum iustum a just war was already a matter of concern for early philosophers. For Cicero, there are two means of decision, one through legal agreement and the other through use of force, with the first representing man and the second animals. Force can be used only when legal agreement cannot be applied.

Only those wars for which reparations are sought or for which threats and declarations are made are just. As a result of the tension between the refusal to use force, as declared in the Sermon on the Mount, and the requirements of the state, Christian theologians gave further impulse to the theory of a just war. Following Ambrose, Augustine — , another well-known church father, as a result of the destruction of Rome by the Western Goths defined the main task of the state as the safeguarding of peace on earth. According to the treatise by Thomas Aquinas — titled On War, a just war must fulfill the following conditions.

The doctrine of a just war had the goal of tying any war to clearly defined, verifiable conditions and at the same time subordinating it to the cause of peace and law. The higher priority of renouncing the use of force is also found in this doctrine. However, the question of a legitimate authority or a common legal basis became more and more difficult to answer, with the result that in most cases both parties considered themselves to be in the right in waging a just war bellum iustum ab utraque parte.

All sovereign states as a consequence received the right to wage war liberum jus ad bellum. As a result, the further development of the Law of Armed Conflict became a priority area of concern jus in bello. At the same time, the question of whether the just war theory, with its emphasis on peace, could be used simply to legitimize the status quo was raised.

Is an unjust peace for example, as seen in a dictatorship or colonial power to be ranked higher than the violent struggle for justice? The United Nations is today's global authority for safeguarding the laws. This means for me that states may engage in military force only within the framework set by the U.

These are as follows. There are two legitimate reasons, namely, the right of a state or an alliance to self-defense Article 51 and military measures approved by the U.

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Security Council for a threat to peace or a violation of peace Articles 39 and The consequences of a war must be predictably the lesser of the two evils. However, there are bans on certain means and weapons, as defined in the International Law of War.

The issue concerns the principle of nonintervention, according to Article 2 of the U. There is no doubt that professional competence is the conditio sine qua non of any soldier. But today this is simply not enough. Plato's four cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice are important for any human being and thus for any soldier. In addition to these virtues, a soldier is bound to the so-called soldier's virtues of discipline, constant critical loyalty, and responsibility.

Virtues are not subject to command and can be learned only through experience and everyday actions. This is why training in the armed forces must be designed in such a way that these virtues can be both acquired and internalized. It goes without saying that leaders and instructors play important parts as role models or examples. Virtues are learned character traits or attitudes toward life that form a person, but they say nothing regarding the ends to which they are directed. Therefore, norms and values are needed. In all constitutional democracies, the values stated in the constitution itself are the guidelines for the armed forces, to which the armed forces must adhere.

These guidelines must be framed and defined with regard to the needs of the armed forces and must not be repealed.

The members of the armed forces must subscribe to this agreed-upon political ethos and definition of man. To teach these values, it is absolutely essential to educate individuals politically and to select soldiers accordingly. To apply these general and at times abstract values and norms to a concrete situation and to find the correct alternative forms of behavior, personal will and moral judgment are needed. Teaching these abilities requires a profound knowledge and reflection of the values and norms of a society and its armed forces. These values and norms must be applied to concrete situations with regard to one's physical, mental, and functional abilities.

On one hand, dilemma training enhances the soldiers' sensibility with respect to recognizing the ethical dimension. On the other hand, it allows controversial discussions with other participants, which help one reassess one's own moral attitude and change it when necessary. Although political education, value systems, and enhancement of moral judgments are necessary, they are not sufficient to guarantee ethical behavior on the part of soldiers.

Depending on the mission and the time allotted, there often is no time for discourse; most actions, especially in stressful situations, occur spontaneously, intuitively, and emotionally. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the source and direction of this spontaneity and intuition i. By this, I mean a basic attitude in which any military enemy is accepted as a human being and in which everyone is aware of their own moral limitations.

Military counterparts, their civilian populations, and even terrorists must be taken as human beings and accorded the same dignity as one's own soldiers. The use of force against such people must not be motivated by hate, revenge, or pleasure. It can by justified only under duress or in exceptional situations where it is deemed necessary to defend a community on the basis of the rule of law. This is because feelings of excessive hatred and disproportionate acts of violence cannot be reconciled with an attitude of goodwill. What is the ethical problem?