NATIONAL DEFENCE & MILITARY ISSUES

Current events and the need for a systematic rethinking of the issues of defense and security – and the respective roles of government, the market, and society in providing them.

In pursuing an interventionist and threatening foreign policy, does the government provide the very motivation for foreign terrorists? Safety of the world when a single country dominates in nuclear possession and enforcement.

Should the production of security, in the interests of the consumers of this intangible commodity, remain subject to the law of free competition?

Are there any private and voluntary, market-produced alternatives to the flawed system of state-protection?Based on historical experience and economic logic, how effective are private alternatives such as mercenaries, guerrillas, militias, partisans and privateers?

What are the consequences of the free proliferation of weapons, in particular of nuclear arms? What is the role of ideology and public opinion in defense and war?

What type of good is defense, private or public? Is defense a distinctly “private” good while national defense remains an “imaginary” one? How would the “logic” of competitive insurance-protection differ from the monopolistic state-protection?

The arbitrariness of “national” borders, and hence of “national” defense. Is the national defense theory right when it states that certain industries (the aircraft, petroleum, and weapons industries) are vitally important to a nation’s defense?

Should a nation’s domestic weapon industries be protected from foreign competitors? How is it possible to build defense strategies on major uncertainties?

Is military ethics a contradiction in terms? Why the military is not an organization that exists to kill. Is there something exceptional about the moral standards expected from military people?

“Moral imbecility” of the military service? Military as an (easy) target of opportunity. Standards of conduct, violations and provisions, reprimands and disciplinary action with/without regard to the issue of criminal liability.

What is loyalty, accountability, fairness? What is the bond that holds against conflict and dissension? Responsibility and consequences. Military code and spirit as a potential well of moral elevation.

What is caring, respect, promise-keeping? Is compassion a key element of good government? Military institutions as form of repository of moral resource within the State.

What are the exact targets of military training? The complex relationship between civilian and military sectors. Horizontal and vertical division of political power. Thoughts on the fact that an army can never declare or maintain a war, raise troops, or establish the rules of it’s own regulations.

The concept of Oath and the ritual solemnity of armed services. What is a military Code of Conduct? Cases and controversies. The infinity of dilemmas in military ethics. Multiculturalism in the army and the possibility of a common culture.

The loyalty dilemma: Obedience to constitution (but whose interpretation?) / Responsibility to superior authority (but always? And if not, why not?). The doctrine of respondent superior. « Human nature » and behavior when atrocities are given a free rein. Lessons from the History of armed conflicts.

What is Treason? Should “a Marine on guard duty have no friends?” On priorities and emotions. Definition of a (national) Enemy. What is restraint, and how to define and produce dedication.

Thinking on some principles of war. Economy of force and wastage of human resources. Profit from past experience. No overestimation of capabilities. On brute force and clever ruse. Learning to follow orders yet retaining sufficient autonomy to refuse illegal orders.

Dangers of soft training. Desirable anxiety, and loyalty to the idea of capacity. Essential difference between military and militaristic way. The role of character guidance and ethical instruction.

Brutality as immorality. Connections between high ability / high integrity. What is Desertion? What is a refusal of an immoral order? Is a military man an instrument of obedience whose choices and actions stay beyond his responsibility?

How to define a war crime? The debate on just war. Are the cardinal virtues pleasant irrelevancies in war time? The question of torture. Inflicting torture in order to obtain information.

Inter-rank and inter-sex fraternization Under what circumstances resign from the army? Restrictions on dissident and protest activities. Why maintain good order and discipline? Limits of the right of expression and national security.

What exactly is self-defense and why does it permit extreme acts? Definition and justification of violence. How does selflessness work, and how is courage cultivated? Values as standards to live by in order to remain in the military. Creeds and dogmas.

Difficulties of following the acronym LDRSHIP (loyalty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, personal courage). Purity of arms: Combatants as voluntary actors in a social contract.

Do soldiers stand apart from the civil order of peaceful interaction as soon as they are armed? Cruelty of conflicts, and moral nihilism as an answer. Is killing an “event” or a moral action?