CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY DAREN BOWYER JUST WAR DOCTRINE

5.9 Conclusion 9: on ‘asymmetric’ warfare: complexity and provocation
reinforces need for intuitive understanding of morally right
The ‘asymmetry’ favoured by the West’s opponents is one that seeks to avoid direct
confrontation with technologically superior forces, targeting instead the vulnerable
civilian population, provoking over-reaction through well-publicised atrocity and
increasing the decision-making complexity for regular armed forces by blurring and
eroding traditional boundaries. From the conclusion of the Thirty Years War the
conduct of warfare in the West sought increasingly to spare the civil population from
the privations of war to the greatest extent possible – until the trend was reversed by the
total war of the Twentieth Century. Contemporary conflict, though, more resembles
that of the pre-Westphalian age: many protagonists seek deliberately to engage directly
or at least involve the civilian population.
There is little evidence to support a popular contention that Western soldiers today have
become more vulnerable to legal attack through the encroachment of Human Rights law
into fields traditionally occupied by LOAC/IHL. Nevertheless, it is clear that the
complexities of modern conflict are not amenable to simple and easy-to-follow rules.
Soldiers may find themselves at different times or in different places within the same
conflict and within the same theatre, subject to different rules. Although RoE, as an
expression of political will, should be suitable to the character of the conflict engaged
in, they may sometimes themselves be complex, counter-intuitive and difficult to apply.
In such circumstances soldiers are best guided by a deeply ingrained sense of what is
morally right. The just war tenets of proportionality and discrimination, underpinned by
an ingrained understanding of the professional military ethos, provide a solid moral
hand-rail.
5.10 Conclusion 10: New Protagonists on the Battlefield Undermine the Warrior
Code, Which is a Key Prop to Moral Intuition.
A professional code of ethics – the warrior’s honour – is a key aspect of the ethos of
Western military forces but it is based on an expectation of fighting a smiliar enemy.
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