Should a good soldier ever disobey a direct military order? Are there
restrictions on how we fight a war? What is meant by "military
honor," and does it really affect the contemporary soldier? Is human
dignity possible under battlefield conditions? Sidney Axinn considers
these basic ethical questions within the context of the laws of
warfare and answers "yes" to each of these questions. In this study
of the conduct of war, he examines actions that are honorable or
dishonorable and provides the first full-length treatment of the
military conventions from a philosophical point of view. Axinn gives
a philosophical analysis of the "Laws of Warfare" as found in the
Hague and Geneva Conventions, which have been agreed to by almost
every nation in the world. The aims of his study are to establish a
basic twentieth-century framework for moral military action and to
assist military personnel in analyzing their won professional ethic.
Stating that moral reasoning is required by people in military
uniform in a wide variety of situations, the author examines the
question of the limits of military obedience. Axinn argues for the
seriousness of the concept of military honor but limits honorable
military activity by a strict interpretation of the notion of war
crime. Major chapters deal with military honor, prisoners of war,
spying, war crimes, the dirty-hands theory of command, nuclear
weapons, terrorism, and covert operations. This philosophical study
of the line between honorable and dishonorable military action
cautions that in compliance with the war conventions professional
military personnel and knowledgeable civilians must not lose their
moral nerve nor abandon honor to satisfy immoral political requests.
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