Soft War: The Ethics of Unarmed Conflict

Description

Just war theory focuses primarily on bodily harm, such as killing, maiming, and torture, while other harms are often largely overlooked. At the same time, contemporary international conflicts increasingly involve the use of unarmed tactics, employing 'softer' alternatives or supplements to kinetic power that have not been sufficiently addressed by the ethics of war or international law. Soft war tactics include cyber-warfare and economic sanctions, media warfare, and propaganda, as well as non-violent resistance as it plays out in civil disobedience, boycotts, and 'lawfare.' While the just war tradition has much to say about 'hard' war - bullets, bombs, and bayonets - it is virtually silent on the subject of 'soft' war. Soft War: The Ethics of Unarmed Conflict illuminates this neglected aspect of international conflict. Half title Title page Imprints page Contents Contributors Foreword Preface Introduction Soft War: The Ethics of Unarmed Conflict Soft War Soft War: The Ethics of Unarmed Conflict Soft War: Theory and Practice Definitions Economic Warfare Nonviolent Resistance Cyber Warfare, Media Warfare, and Lawfare Hostage Taking and Prisoners Conclusion Definitions and Meta Views 1 Defining War Defining War The Legal and Normative Implications of Defining War Definitions of War Just War Definitions Juridical Definitions Political and Sociological Definitions A New Definition of War Elements of the Definition There Are Two or More Organized Groups Intensity of Hostilities No Adjudicating Authority The Aims of Belligerents Can a Criminal Organization Wage War? Unarmed Conflicts Lawfare Economic Sanctions Cyber Warfare Conclusion Notes 2 Coercion, Manipulation, and Harm: Civilian Immunity and Soft War Soft War Order and Coercion On Innocence On Killing and Other Harms Within the Limits: Necessity, Order, and Proportionality Necessity Order Proportionality Practical Limits: Cyber Warfare, Information Warfare, and Sanctions Off Limits Possibly Permissible Likely Permissible Conclusion Note Economic Warfare 3 Reconsidering Economic Sanctions The History of Sanctions Sanctions after World War II Smart Sanctions Nation-To-Nation Sanctions that are Not Smart: The US Sanctions against Iran Targeted Sanctions: Continuing Difficulties Arms Embargoes Visa Bans Aviation Bans Targeted Trade Sanctions The Future of Targeted Sanctions Conclusion Notes 4 Conditional Sale Introduction Economic Sanctions, Conditional Sale, and Conditional Aid Conditional Sale as a Response to a Justified Grievance Conditional Sale in the Absence of a Justified Grievance Complicating the Picture: Conditional Sales and the Problem of Private Businesses Conclusion Notes Cyber Warfare, Media Warfare, and Lawfare 5 State-Sponsored Hacktivism and the Rise of “Soft” War Introduction A Brief History of Cyber Conflict (Or Malevolent Activities in the Cyber Domain) The Advent of State-Sponsored Internet Activism Cyber Hacktivism and “Soft War” “Soft War” and “Soft” Law (Ethics) Note 6 Media Warfare, Propaganda, and the Law of War Information Operations and Propaganda An Introduction to International Law and Armed Conflict The Relationship between Legitimacy and LOAC Media Warfare and Propaganda: The Impact on LOAC and Legitimacy Media Coverage and LOAC: Reconciling Different Perspectives Perception and LOAC Exploiting Media Coverage and the Effect of Civilian Casualties The Consequences for International Law: Definitions and Application Eroding the Principle of Military Necessity and the Concept of Military Objective Precautions Misconceptions and Exploitations of the Principle of Proportionality Conclusion 7 The Ethics of Soft War on Today’s Mediatized Battlespaces Introduction Today’s Heteropolar Mediascape as a Level Playing-Field The Soft War Battleground Ethics of the United States The Discrepancy between the Ethical Reality on the Ground and in the Mediatization of US Wars The Soft War Battleground Ethics of ISIS Representing the Unethical Reality of War through ISIS Media Virtually Obscuring Battlefield Compliance or Truthfully Representing Atrocity: Concluding Thoughts on What This Means for Just War Theory Note 8 Abuse of Law on the Twenty-First-Century Battlefield: A Typology of Lawfare Warfare, Law, and Lawfare A Critique of the Lawfare Critique Use and Abuse of Law A Typology of Lawfare Conclusion Nonviolence 9 Unarmed Bodyguards to the Rescue? The Ethics of Nonviolent Intervention Introduction What Is Civilian Peacekeeping? The Prima Facie Case for Civilian Peacekeeping Objections to Civilian Peacekeeping The Privilege Objection The Supererogation Objection The Inefficacy Objection The Upscaling Issue and the Relation to Military Peacekeeping Conclusion Notes 10 How Subversive Are Human Rights? Civil Subversion and the Ethics of Unarmed Resistance The Methods of Civil Subversion Civil Subversion, Power, and Unarmed “Force” Civil Subversion and Human Rights Human Rights as Guarantees Subversives versus the State States versus Subversives Political Consequences Notes 11 Bearers of Hope: On the Paradox of Nonviolent Action Protest and/or Provocation African American Prophetic Pacifism Personal Pacifism Political Pacifism What Does Peacemaking Look Like? How Does One Absolutely Oppose a System, From Within? Dialogic Power The Dilemmas of Birmingham The Question of Provocation The Question of Children But What of Engaging Children in Such Protests? Coda: Birmingham Sunday Notes Hostage Taking and Prisoners 12 A Cooperative Globalist Approach to the Hostage Dilemma Hostages as “Unbounded Prisoners” The Historical Context Hostages versus Prisoners of War Four Characteristics of Hostages as “Unbounded Prisoners” Time Frame Location Truth and Transparency Law The Fallacies of the Realist and Sovereignist Arguments The Approximations of the Realist Calculus Fighting Unfairness The Sovereignist Decision to Use Force: The Hannibal Case Inter-Temporal Challenges The Value of Future Lives Whose Futures? A Plea for a Post-Sovereignist Multilateral Policy Concluding Remarks 13 Kidnapping and Extortion as Tactics of Soft War License to Kill, and Capture International Armed Conflict Non-International Armed Conflicts Unlawful Combatants Dignity and Agency Hostages Arbitrary Treatment Merely as a Means Concluding Remarks Notes Conclusion 14 Proportionate Self-Defense in Unarmed Conflict The Right to Proportionate Self-Defense Military Necessity in Soft War Humanitarianism in Soft War Proportionate Self-Defense: Cyber Warfare, Cyber Terrorism Proportionate Self-Defense: Economic Sanctions Proportionate Self-Defense: Lawfare Conclusion Note References Index