Ethics of War

Module overview

This module explores many of the ethical challenges associated with the use of force for political purposes. It is designed to provide students with a timely opportunity to engage with big ideas and high-stakes issues in a dynamic, complex and highly contested area of scholarship and policymaking. Drawing on historical and contemporary information and ideas, we consider whether, how and why ethical principles influence strategic and tactical decisions. Thus, Ethics of War complements modules in the Department of Politics and International Relations that explore issues of global justice, foreign policy, and military strategy.

Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning methods

In Ethics of War, student learning is facilitated through a combination of weekly lectures, weekly seminars, fortnightly sessions for consolidating learning, and independent study. The module’s learning activities and assessment tasks are designed to foster critical thinking, evidence-based argument, intellectual autonomy, civility, self-discipline, and moral courage.

Study time
Type	Hours
Teaching	24
Independent Study	126
Total study time	150

Resources & Reading list

General Resources

Textbooks. Resource type: Background textbook Alex J. Bellamy, Just Wars: From Cicero to Iraq, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2006. Resource type: Background textbook Ian Clark, Waging War: A Philosophical Introduction, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990. Resource type: Background textbook C. A. J. Coady, Morality and Political Violence, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Resource type: Background textbook Jean Bethke Elshtain, Just War Against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World, New York: Basic Books, 2003. Resource type: Background textbook Christian Enemark, Armed Drones and the Ethics of War: Military Virtue in a Post-Heroic Age, London: Routledge, 2014. Resource type: Background textbook David Fisher, Morality and War: Can War be Just in the Twenty-First Century?, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Resource type: Background textbook David Fisher, Morality and War: Can War be Just in the Twenty-First Century?, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Resource type: Background textbook Colin S. Gray, ‘Moral Advantage, Strategic Advantage?’, Journal of Strategic Studies 33, no. 3 (2010): 333-65. Resource type: Background textbook Steven P. Lee, Ethics and War: An Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Resource type: Background textbook Brian Orend, The Morality of War, Peterborough: Broadview, 2006. Resource type: Background textbook Brian Rappert, Non-Lethal Weapons as Legitimizing Forces? Technology, Politics and the Management of Conflict, London: Frank Cass, 2003. Resource type: Background textbook Torbjörn Tännsjö, Understanding Ethics: An Introduction to Moral Theory, 2nd ed., Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008. Resource type: Background textbook Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars: a Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations, 4th ed., New York: Basic Books, 2006.

Assessment

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Reflective Journal	40%
Essay	60%

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Essay	100%

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Reflective Journal	40%
Essay	60%

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External