The protracted wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have led to a number of moral abuses committed by members of the U.S. military. Media reports have focused particular attention on the human cost incurred by these abuses, the torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib and the massacre of civilians at Haditha being but a few, tragic examples. However, the human cost of these abuses is measured not just in the lives of noncombatants, but also by the number of military suicides that are a byproduct of traumatic combat experiences and the subsequent violation of moral norms. In light of this, any society that is sincere in its concern for the moral well-being of its soldiers, and the noncombatants with whom they interact, should seek to reduce the occurrence of such abuses. In this dissertation, I argue that the development of moral character, particularly the conception of moral character that Aristotle promotes in his ethical theory, is fundamental to preventing the moral abuses that soldiers commit, both in combat and during peacetime. This project is composed of five chapters. The first chapter is devoted to describing the moral challenges that confront soldiers, particularly on the battlefield. Chapter Two articulates the broad outlines of Aristotelian virtue ethics with a specific emphasis on four key features of Aristotle’s virtue theory and how they can be harnessed to promote ethical conduct within the military institution. Arguably, the most important component of moral character is practical reason, the ability to assess a moral problem, weighing all the various considerations that affect it, and arrive at an ethical solution. Considering this, Chapter Three examines how practical reason can guide the soldier’s understanding of obedience, loyalty and respect, traits that are widely considered military virtues, but which are also at the root of a great deal of unethical behavior. Chapter Four examines the military’s code of professional ethics and how the possession of practical reason is necessary if soldiers are to make ethical decisions in situations the code does not explicitly address. The final chapter, Chapter Five, argues for more emphasis on the development of practical reason in military ethics education. / text

Thesis (M.S. in Leadership and Human Resources Development)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2002. / Thesis advisor(s): Albert C. Pierce, Gail Fann Thomas. Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-82). Also available online.

Thesis (M. A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1996. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-129).

This thesis seeks to examine the military culture of obedience and the standards that exist relating to the defence of superior orders. It will explore laws and practices for this defence that have been adopted nationally and internationally. It will also propose guidelines for differentiating legal from illegal orders.

Just-Warists and War-Pacifists disagree on whether soldiers are morally justified in killing each other in wartime combat. Many of their respective arguments, and their contradictory conclusions, are based upon principles of self-defense. In this thesis, I examine the role that principles of self-defense play in the arguments surrounding the moral justification of killing in combat. I do so by critiquing both a Just-Warist argument that relies on self-defense (constructed from the works of Michael Walzer and Judith Jarvis Thomson) and a War-Pacifist argument (developed by Richard Norman) that condemns killing in combat based on the moral requirements of self-defense. I demonstrate that both arguments fail due to their mistaken assumptions that soldiers are not morally responsible for their actions. I conclude by arguing that--once soldiers are recognized as morally responsible agents--killing in combat can be morally justified by principles of self-defense. / Master of Arts

Thesis (S.T.M.)--Yale Divinity School, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-136).

Thesis--School of Advanced Airpower Studies, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., 1992-93. / Title from title screen (viewed Oct. 27, 2003). "May 1993." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-239). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.M.A.S.)--U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 2007. / Cover title. AD-A475 568. Includes bibliographical references. Also available via the World Wide Web.

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