Moral Victories: The Ethics of Winning Wars

Description

What does it mean to win a moral victory? Ideals of just and decisive triumphs often colour the call to war, yet victory is an increasingly dubious proposition in modern conflict, where negotiated settlements and festering violence have replaced formal surrenders. In the Just War and strategic studies traditions, assumptions about victory also underpin decisions to go to war but become more problematic in discussions about its conduct and conclusion. So although winning is typically considered the very object of war, we lack a clear understanding of victory itself. Likewise, we lack reliable resources for discerning a just from an unjust victory, for balancing the duty to fight ethically with the obligation to win, and for assessing the significance of changing ways of war for moral judgment. Though not amenable to easy answers, these important questions are both perennial and especially urgent. This book brings together a group of leading scholars from various disciplines to tackle them. It covers both traditions of victory - charting the historically variable notion of victory and the dialogues and fissures this opens in the just war and strategic canons - along with contemporary challenges of victory- analysing how new security contexts put pressure on these fissures and working toward clearer ideas about victory today. The result is a wide-ranging and timely collection of essays that bridges the gap between ethical, strategic, and historical approaches to war and develops new ways of thinking about it as a practical and moral proposition. Cover Moral Victories: The Ethics of Winning Wars Copyright Acknowledgements Contents List of Figure and Tables List of Contributors 1: Introduction: Moral Victories-The Ethics of Winning Wars Introduction Victory Abounds Trophies and Triumphs Degrade and Destroy Moral Victories Traditions and Challenges Conclusion References Part I: Traditions: The Changing Character of Victory 2: `Let God Rise Up!´ The Bible and Notions of Victory in War Introduction The Divine Warrior God as Commander and Judge The Divine Redeemer New Directions Concluding Remarks References 3: Carl von Clausewitz and Moral Victories Introduction Military victories The `most beautiful of wars´ Moral victories Conclusions References 4: Defeat as Moral Victory: The Historical Experience Reactions to Defeat Theme I: Death as Sacrifice Theme II: The Fallen as Martyrs Theme III: Betrayal Theme IV: Revenge Theme V: Decadence and Sin, Contrition and Redemption Through Suffering Conclusion References 5: Victory Though the Heavens Fall? Unlimited Warfare as Theme and Phenomenon Judging the Moral Status of Unlimited War: Does Victory Matter Over All Else? Letting Slip the Dogs of War: Unlimited War as Historical Phenomenon and Ideal Avoidance of War, Restrained War, and Unlimited War: How Are They Related? The Classic Statement of Just War: Victory as the Vindication of Justice May Unlimited Means of War Sometimes Be Justified? The Thinking of Paul Ramsey and Michael Walzer Removing Limits on War in Cosmopolitan Thinking About War Fighting Justly, Winning, and Exceeding the Limits: Some General Conclusions References 6: Revisionist Just War Theory and the Impossibility of a Moral Victory Introduction The Constable and The Soldier Warrior Cops and Cop Warriors Revisionist Just War Theory Revisionist vs Conventional Just War Theory Critiquing Revisionist Just War Theory: The Impossibility of a Moral Victory Conclusion References Part II: Challenges: The Problem of Victory in Contemporary Warfare 7: Victory and the Ending of Conflicts Introduction Defining Victory in War The Scandal of Winning War Aims, Jus Ad Bellum, and Victory Victory Matters Prudentially and Morally Conclusion References 8: The Ethics of Unwinnable War Introduction Just War Theory Unwinnable War The Just Way to Lose Redefine War Aims The Problem of Negotiating The Problem of Barbarism Conclusion References 9: The Scars of Victory: The Implied `Finality´ of Success in War Introduction The Probability of Success in Just War Theory Affective Familiarization The Past as Present; the Past as Future The Scars of (Moral) Victory? The Appomattox Myth and the permanent endurance of war Conclusions References 10: Winning Humanitarian Interventions? Problematizing Victory and jus post bellum in International Action to Stop Mass Atrocities Introduction Problematizing war and victory when protecting civilians Responsibilities After Humanitarian Interventions Problematizing Victory and jus post bellum Conclusion References 11: Neither Victors nor Victims: Royal Wootton Bassett and Civil-Military Relations in the Twenty-First Century Introduction History and Background How it Came About Growing Media and National Awareness Politics and Remembrance The Town Recognized Implications for the Civil-Military Relationship Conclusions References 12: Cui Bono: Moral Victory in Privatized War Introduction Victory and Just Peace in the Just War Tradition PMCs and the Market for Force Privatized War and Just Peace PMCs and a Just Peace Conclusion References 13: Justice after the Use of Limited Force: Victory and the Moral Dilemmas of jus post vim Introduction Differentiating Jus Post Vim from Jus Post Bellum The Principles Of Jus Post Vim Conclusion: Limited Force and the Question of Peace References 14: Conclusion: The Normative, Political, and Temporal Dimensions of Moral Victories Introduction Three dimensions of victory Normative Political Temporal Reconstructing victory and the just war tradition Conclusion References Index