CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY DAREN BOWYER JUST WAR DOCTRINE

The remainder of the chapter has been dedicated to demonstrating that notwithstanding
the failure of the legal paradigm for justification of use of force, there remains a need
for conflict to be convincingly justified, and conducted justly. This requirement was
demonstrated to exist at three interlocking levels: international, national and individual.
At the international level it was argued that however powerful a state might be it is
nevertheless constrained in its use of force. To use force without a broad international
consensus that it is justified so to do, or to use it in a way that is deemed immoral, will
detract from the ability to assemble the political and military coalition that is required
for sustained military commitment. Moreover, a state’s ‘soft power’ is reduced when
unjustified – or unjust use of – force undermines moral authority and calls into question
a hegemon’s legitimacy – and hence its authority and leadership.
Nationally, at the domestic-political level, unjustified use of force, or its unjust
application, threatens electoral support (at least, for democracies), and the status and
standing of the ruling party and its leadership. Beyond this, the legitimacy and status of
the very institutions of national democracy may be undermined and opened to
challenge. And the reputation of the Armed Forces may be tarnished in a way that
harms morale and damages recruiting. National will and the readiness to accept the
inevitable casualties of a conflict is also undermined if the conflict is perceived to have
been entered into unjustly or if its conduct has been improper.
At the level of the individual – and of particular relevance is the individual soldier –
morale can be seen to be affected by concerns over justification of a conflict or by
unjust conduct within it. Whilst there is little evidence to make the case that ‘belief in
cause’ is a critical factor in the complex matrix that constitutes a soldier’s morale, there
is evidence that lack of belief in cause is a source of ‘friction’ that undermines military
effectiveness. Concern over improper conduct by his colleagues also impacts on a
soldier’s morale and mental well-being, denting his pride in the organisation to which
he belongs and collectively sullying his reputation. As with the national level so too at
the individual, concern about the moral legitimacy of the cause being fought for
undermines the readiness with which casualties – to self, colleagues, friends and family
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