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Introduction: Is a Military Really Worth Having?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2021

Peter Balint Open the ORCID record for Peter Balint [Opens in a new window]
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Abstract

Just war theory has traditionally focused on jus ad bellum (the justice of war) and jus in bello (justice in war). What has been neglected is the question of jus ante bellum, or justice before war. In particular: Under what circumstances is it justifiable for a polity to prepare for war by militarizing? When (if ever) and why (if at all) is it morally permissible or even obligatory to create and maintain the potential to wage war? What are the alternatives to the military? And if we do have militaries, how should they be arranged, trained, and equipped? These considerations are not about whether war making is justified, but about whether war building is justified. In Ethics, Security, and the War-Machine, Ned Dobos argues that we have not sufficiently calculated the true (noneconomic) costs of the military, and that if we did, having a standing defense force would not seem like as good an idea. Dobos pushes us to reflect on something we have taken for granted: that one of the biggest institutions in our society, which is supposed to keep us safe and allow us to lead our own lives, may in fact pose great dangers and risks to us physically, morally, and culturally. The essays in this symposium take Dobos's work as a starting point and show the importance, complexity, and richness of this new strand of ethical inquiry.

Keywords

jus ante bellumjustice before warmilitary disestablishmentcost of the militarystanding militaryNed Doboscivilian defense system
Type
Book Symposium: Ethics, Security, and the War-Machine
Information
Ethics & International Affairs , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , Fall 2021 , pp. 343 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs

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References

NOTES

1 Ryan, Cheyney, “Pacifism,” in Lazar, Seth and Frowe, Helen, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 277–93, at p. 278Google Scholar.

2 Quoted in Michalos, Alex C., “Militarism and the Quality of Life,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 577, no. 1 (December 1989), pp. 216–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 216.

3 Dobos, Ned, Ethics, Security, and the War-Machine: The True Costs of the Military (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Singh, Naunihal, Seizing Power: The Strategic Logic of Military Coups (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014), pp. 2–3Google Scholar.

5 Jennifer M. Reingle Gonzalez, Stephen A. Bishopp, Katelyn K. Jetelina, Ellen Paddock, Kelley Pettee Gabriel, and M. Brad Cannell, “Does Military Veteran Status and Deployment History Impact Officer Involved Shootings? A Case-Control Study,” Journal of Public Health 41, no. 3 (September 2019), pp. e245–52.

6 Ogden, C. K. and Florence, Mary Sargant, “Militarism versus Feminism,” in Kamester, Margaret and Vellacott, Jo, eds., Militarism versus Feminism: Writings on Women and War (1915; London: Virago, 1987)Google Scholar.

7 Max Benwell and Kari Paul, “What about the 30–50 feral hogs? Man's defense of assault weapons goes viral,” The Guardian, August 6, 2019.