The moral dimension of asymmetrical warfare
Subtitle: counter-terrorism, democratic values and military ethics
By: by Th. A. van Baarda and D.E.M. Verweij (eds.) ; with a foreword by Richard Dannett.
Contributors: Baarda, Ted van.; Verweij, Désirée.; Nederlandse Defensie Academie.; Netherlands Institute for Military Ethics.
Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Leiden; Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 529
ISBN-13: 9789004171299
Subjects: Asymmetric warfare -- Moral and ethical aspects -- Congresses; Counterinsurgency -- Moral and ethical aspects -- Congresses; Terrorism -- Prevention -- Moral and ethical aspects -- Congresses; Low-intensity conflicts (Military science) -- Moral and ethical aspects -- Congresses; Military ethics -- Congresses; Democracy -- Congresses
Genres: Congresses
Description: During the Cold War - an era in which the term 'asymmetric warfare' was not well known - the issue of the laws and ethics of war seemed simple enough to most soldiers, being concerned mainly with leadership, management, and morale. Post-Cold War reality revealed a very different set of challenges, including a significantly wider moral dimension, particularly when forces, initially under UN leadership and later under the NATO flag, were deployed in different parts of the turbulent Balkans. Military observers, by now with legal advisers close by, watched events in the Balkans, East Timor and then in central and West Africa with professional interest, and some were involved there.^

Soldiers were subsequently caught as much by surprise by the events of 9/11, and a graphic example of asymmetric warfare, as most of the rest of the world.The initial, post 9/11 response in Afghanistan brought the notion of the fragile or collapsed state, and the blurring of the roles of military forces, international organisations, non-government organisations, non-state actors, and indigenous administrators and their uniformed organisations, and with them the moral dilemmas, to much wider notice. More recent conflicts have indeed shown the need for commanders and soldiers in all types of conflict to have a much better understanding of the complex moral and legal environments, and opened new debates about the principle of 'winning hearts and minds' in counter-insurgency and peace support operations.^

Technology has also produced mixed benefits in the field of military operations, and posed additional dilemmas, many of them moral: remotely piloted vehicles, some of them carrying missiles, non-lethal weapons, surveillance and search equipment, as well as networked capability, and all pose questions about their use on the battlefield.The trend towards defining human rights and 'fundamental freedoms' poses further questions for the soldier today. This collection of essays, written by a wide variety of practising experts and scholars, touches on all these issues. It links the medieval traditions of jus in bello, codified by Saint Thomas Aquinas in the Christian Church nearly eight centuries ago, to examination of modern challenges and moral dilemmas relating to the ethics and laws of conflict and crises of all types in the twenty-first century, and in a global context among people of many different faiths and beliefs, and none.^

It is an important collection for all those researching or practically involved in conflict and post-conflict situations: few people entering an operational area or 'battlespace' in the twenty-first century will have to wait for long before being confronted with the complex and difficult situations on which the challenging discussions in this book shed light.
Notes: "Report of an international conference hosted by the Ministry for Defence of the Netherlands and the Netherlands Defence Academy."

"Publication of the Netherlands Institute for Military Ethics (NIME)."

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Table of contents: title: The moral dimension of asymmetrical warfare : an introduction / Ted van Baarda; title: Questioning the resort to U.S. hegemonic military force / Harry van der Linden; title: Asymmetric air war : ethical implications / Martin L. Cook and Mark Conversino; title: Reframing asymmetrical warfare : beyond the just war idea / Thomas Frank; title: Armed intervention and democratic dreams : small western liberal democracies and multinational intervention / Allard Wagemaker; title: Asymmetric warfare and morality : from moral asymmetry to amoral symmetry? / Carl Ceulemans; title: Military operations by armed UN peacekeeping missions : an application of generalized just war principles / John W. Lango; title: The moral dimension of asymmetrical warfare : accountability, culpability and military effectiveness / Daren Bowyer; title: British leaders and irregular warfare / David Benest; title: The lesson avoided : the official legacy of the My Lai massacre / Lawrence P. Rockwood; title: Culpability : senior leaders have dirty hands / Donald A. MacCuish; title: Between violence and restraint : human rights, humanitarian considerations, and the Israeli military in the al-Aqsa intifada / Eyal Ben-Ari; title: The phenomenon of Breaking the Silence in Israel : "witnessing" as consciousness raising strategy of Israeli ex-combatants / Erella Grassiani; title: Ethics in the core of officer education : some philosophical aspects for curriculum transformation / Jarmo Toiskallio; title: Why people make the wrong choices : the psychology of ethical failure / J. Peter Bradley; title: (Dis)respecting the law of armed conflict in asymmetrical warfare? : a consequentialist approach to a consequentialist question / Daniel S. Blocq; title: Moral dynamics in culture centric warfare / Patrick Mileham; title: Dilemmas in the employment of combat stress-related clinical research : the imperative of prevention / Eric Vermetten; title: Politics, media and war coverage : an indexed relation? / Javier G. Marín and Óscar G. Luengo; title: Asymmetrical warfare and modern digital media : an old concept changed by new technology? / Uroš Svete; title: Security versus liberty? : ethical lessons from post-9/11 American counter-terrorist security politics / Wim Smit; title: Saying no to torture : a moral absolute, self-righteous or just naive? / Maureen Ramsay; title: Dirty war, or : how democracies can lose in the fight against terrorism / Asta Maskaliūnaitė; title: Human dignity in the era of counter-terrorism / Ted van Baarda and Désiree Verweij.