CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY DAREN BOWYER JUST WAR DOCTRINE

instrument of compassion is also removed from the battlefield. Gone is the opportunity
for individual moral judgement of an enemy’s continued capacity to pose a threat, and
in its place, fuelled by the ‘video-game’ culture, is a desire to eliminate all hostile
targets – no longer people but rather ‘hot spots’ on a screen.
In response to the west’s technological superiority its actual and potential enemies have
adopted a style of warfare seeking asymmetries of their own. Most typically this seeks
to avoid direct confrontation with the west’s superior military force and to attack,
instead, soft – and usually civilian – targets; undermining will by destroying the civil
population’s sense of security and faith in its government.
In responding to the West’s technological superiority, its opponents have largely
resorted to a form of asymmetric warfare that presents greater moral challenges to
regular military forces so engaged, than does conventional warfare. It brings them into
greater contact with the ‘neutral’ civilian population (which may or may not be in
sympathy with their asymmetric opponent’s cause, but will almost certainly be both
targeted by the opponent and used by him as a shield). It also brings them onto contact
with a wider range of protagonists, who may present a challenge to the tradition of
warrior’s honour that underpins regular military ethos. They are likely to face an
opponent unbound either by law, convention or ethics. They may be frustrated by an
inability directly to engage with the enemy, and they are likely to encounter atrocity and
attempts to provoke over-reaction. Yet, understanding that all warfare is at essence a
political activity, it is more important than ever that their conduct be correct. Proper
engagement with the ‘neutral’ population is likely to be as essential to strategic success
as it is to legitimacy. Improper conduct, whether abuse of prisoners and civilians, or
disproportionate and indiscriminate offensive action, undermines international standing
and a country’s ‘soft power’; it creates friction in coalitions and damages an Army’s
standing with its own population. Soldiers’ own sense of professionalism and moral
standing is undermined by inhumane conduct on the part of their colleagues or
themselves.
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