CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY DAREN BOWYER JUST WAR DOCTRINE

Army, 99 with its accompanying Commanders’ Guide, 100 lists selfless commitment,
respect for others, loyalty, integrity, discipline and courage, as core values. Obedience
to the law – civil (wherever a soldier is serving), military and of armed conflict – and
the avoidance of conduct that undermines trust, respect or professional ability, are listed
as ‘Standards of Conduct.’
Some of these values have an obvious instrumental purpose in the maintenance of
fighting power: subjugation of self to achievement of the mission; internal cohesion and
effectiveness. The reasons for others, which go to the heart of how we expect our
armies to conduct themselves today, may be less immediately apparent in such
instrumental terms. As a British Army Doctrine Publication points out
(s)ome of the most barbarous and unprincipled military organisations in history
have had tremendous morale and will to fight, based on excellent motivation,
leadership and management, which have given them great military effectiveness
and operational success. They have even possessed a greater external ethic to
inspire them to conquest. 101
Chapter 2 (specifically Section 2.3) discussed the continued need for moral justification
of use of force and the imperative for proper conduct when armed force is used. It is for
the reasons recounted there that we expect and require our military to ‘respect others’;
to act with integrity and honour; that such values are necessary for us when they were
not to the Vikings, Huns or Genghis Khan’s Mongol hordes. To recap, we must
consider reasoning at three inter-related levels: the international, national and
individual.
At the international level, conduct in accordance with the norms of international law and
accepted standards of humanity, whatever the provocation, is important because it
impacts directly on our national standing; any failing damages relations with allies and
partners, and hampers our cause. As evidence consider the harm done to the United
States’ reputation and standing by the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse case, in particular, and
then to the United Kingdom by allegations of abuse by UK soldiers. For a nation’s
forces to act unjustly not only undermines the nation’s standing but impacts on its
ability to gather together international coalitions of support, which even the most
powerful nation requires for sustained military operations. If Moral Authority is
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