Ethics

Ethics Study Guide e. Punishment #2, i.e., soldiers from all sides must be held accountable to investigation and possible trial. f. Compensation, i.e., a post-war poll tax on civilians is generally not allowed, and resources need to be adequate so that the defeated country can begin its own rebuilding. g. Rehabilitation, i.e., demilitarization and disarmament, police and judicial re- training, human rights education, etc. (Note: Basically, there needs to be an ethical exit strategy from war.) Realism Realists believe that moral concepts should not be used as descriptions of, or prescriptions for, state behavior on an international level. Emphasis is on power and security issues, the need for a state to focus on it self-interest, and, most importantly, they view the international arena as a kind of anarchy, in which the will to power is priority. Once in a war, realists contend that a state must do whatever it can to win. (All’s fair in love and war.) 1. Descriptive realism claims that states, as a matter of fact, either do not or cannot behave morally. Morality is a luxury states cannot afford. 2. Prescriptive realism claims that a state ought to behave amorally in the international arena. (Nice guys finish last.) 3. Pacifism: A pacifist rejects war in favor of peace. War for the pacifist is always wrong; there is no moral justification to resort to war. It is not violence that a pacifist objects to; it is the kind and degree of violence that war involves. Opponents of pacifism argue that the pacifist refuses to take part in defending himself and his country, but gathers all the benefits without sharing in the burdens. Terrorism Thomas Hobbes makes three points relevant to this issue: 1. He insists that fear is definitely a bad thing. To live in constant fear--not just occasional anxiety, but to have an unrelenting fear of violent death--is worse than anything. Fear controls and reduces a person. To live in continual fear is to have no life at all. 2. Fear is hardly compatible with social life. People who are afraid tend to stay alone with their fears and trust no one. 3. A condition of unrelenting fear can only be kept at bay in a stable political society. Terrorism capitalizes on these points. Terrorists strike violence against civilians and noncombatants precisely to inflict fear or terror, with the aim of destabilizing the existing social order. This fear may provoke a lack of confidence in the government, depress the economy, and/or distort the political process. ©2018 Achieve Page 81 of 116