Politics and the General in Supreme Command

Law Reform and Averting Unjust War
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-032-86509-6
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 176 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 426 g

Reihe: War, Conflict and Ethics

This book argues for reform of the convention that, when politicians decide on a course of action, the general in supreme command obeys without question.

The entire spread-out chain of command is unified in the general, who offers the only connection between the military and politics. Offering the sole connection between the military and politics, only the general can turn political directions into military command and capacitate war. Thus, the general has unique opportunity to resist unconscionable direction to launch an unjust war or to conduct or expand war unjustly. This book argues for reform, so the general has the right in law to refuse direction which is lawful, but awful. The legal capacity to refuse would mean the general would be expected to act responsibly, not merely as the unresisting pawn of politics. Such reform, creating legal opportunity for the supreme command to refuse lawful but unconscionable directives, might avert unjust war.

This book will be of much interest to students of the ethics of war, civil-military relations, and international relations.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Professional Reference, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Adams, Richard

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Internationale Organisationen und Institutionen
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Militärgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ethik, Moralphilosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Staatsbürgerkunde, Staatsbürgerschaft, Zivilgesellschaft
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Militärwesen Nationale und Internationale Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Friedens- und Konfliktforschung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1 Introduction

2 What’s Been Said – Scholarship has Paid Insufficient Attention to the General

3 Law and War – Law Cannot Capture War’s Moral Complexity

4 Liberalism and Law – The Risk in Law’s Overstatement

5 Conscience – Some Things will be Morally Impossible

6 For All of Us, As One of Us – The General is Equal as a Citizen

7 More Than a Postman – The General’s Singular Burden

8 Let the General Say No – Moral Space in the Shadow of Law

9 Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Richard Adams is a commander in the Royal Australian Navy. He has doctorates from the University of Western Australia and the University of New South Wales. He was an Australian Fulbright scholar to Yale University and a visiting research fellow to the Changing Character of War programme at the University of Oxford.