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c h a p t e r 6 ETHICS IN THE TIMES OF WAR pauletta otis This chapter focuses on ethical principles found in just war theory as they are practiced and applied during the different phases of war. The underlying assumption is that understanding the role ethics plays throughout a conflict will contribute to a more durable just peace. Focusing on how ethical principles are put into practice or ignored throughout the different phases of a war may make the invisible visible, even through the fog of war. What happens at each phase of a war matters. It is not just the initial determination to go to war, or how to fight it, or how to end war that concerns just war theorists but all of the phases—planning, mobilization, conflict, demobilization, stability and support, nation building, and peacemaking . Ethical principles and practices influence each discrete phase and have cumulative effects on successive phases. Wars have both long-term and short-term consequences not only because of their destructive power in terms of life and death, but because wars are justified and rationalized in terms of ethical principles and behaviors . Whether individuals or nations behave in relationship to their ethical ideals will be the standard by which they are judged at the end of a war. The justification for war will be evaluated as to truth insofar as the war was conducted in relationship to that justification. Too often, the ethical record of a war is ignored at the initiation of a peace process in an effort to end hostilities and make peace as quickly as possible. Failure to understand the justifications for war and the ethical conduct of the war inevitably leads to a frail and faulty peace. 97 98 pauletta otis If scholars and practitioners are to understand how to end wars, support just resolution, and ensure durable settlements, they need to know infinitely more than that the killing has stopped. It is incredibly naı̈ve to think that men and women, even if of good will and faith, can simply appear near the end of a war and say ‘‘We are here to help; Let us conduct seminars and discussions on conflict resolution; We have a Peaceful God on our side.’’ A clear vision is required to see how and why the war was fought, what the rules of the conflict were, and whether the rules and guidelines were followed. It is assumed that just war theory is based on religious theologies and traditions that can be found in every religion and culture. In this chapter, religious ideologies and behaviors will be used as a surrogate measure of the more theoretical framework available in the study of ethics. Religion and religious actors frame the application of ethics in ways congruent with a specific culture and in relationship to threat perception. What religious actors do and say in the first days of war in reference to ethical traditions changes dramatically with the onslaught of hostilities, the killing and destruction of the enemy, war exhaustion, and the aftermath of war. Religion and the role it plays during warfare is the visible evidence of the practice of ethics by a people, and is the single most critical variable in the study of armed conflict because religion, like war, intrinsically and undeniably deals first and foremost with the issues of life and death. At the beginning of conflict, ethics as based on religion becomes indistinguishable from culture in defense of the homeland, and the enemy is defined as the other. In the middle of war, ethics as based on religion contributes to the rules of warfare by defining who can and cannot be tortured, interrogated, or killed, and specifically wrestles with the rules of proportionality. At the end of war there is a dramatic change, and religious personages take the lead in peace movements by articulating ethical principles in relationship to their ideas of a just peace. Religion, and the roles it plays during warfare as the visible evidence of the practice of ethics by a people, is the single most critical variable in the study of armed conflict because, like war, it intrinsically and undeniably deals first and foremost with the issues of life and death. This is not to say that ethics and religions are the same thing. It is possible to behave ethically without reference to a religious tradition; it is possible to behave religiously without reference to a formalized ethical awareness. Nevertheless, religions are [3.145...

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