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Journal of Military Ethics

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Thinking Broadly About Military Ethics
James Turner Johnson

Online Publication Date: 01 January 2002

To cite this Article: Johnson, James Turner (2002) 'Thinking Broadly About Military
Ethics', Journal of Military Ethics, 1:1, 2 - 3
To link to this article: DOI: 10.1080/150275702753457370
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/150275702753457370

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 Journal of Military Ethics (2002) 1(1): 2 – 3
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EDITORIAL

Thinking Broadly About Military

Ethics
James Turner Johnson
Department of Religion, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University, 70 Lipman Drive, New Brunswick, NJ
08901-8525, USA. Tel: »1 732 932 9637. Fax: »1 732 932 1271. E-mail: jtj@rci.rutgers.edu

The aim of the Journal of Military Ethics is to stimulate thinking about military ethics, a
broad conversation on normative issues related to military force. JME will undertake to do
this by bringing together in each issue articles and features re ecting a variety of
disciplinary, professional, historical and cultural perspectives, as well as articles explicitly
seeking to approach the issues treated in ways that bring differing perspectives into
systematic and fruitful dialogue. In doing this, we believe JME is responding to a genuine
need. Normative issues related to military force are treated today in the distinctive contexts
of law, professional military life, and a wide variety of academic disciplines. In some
contexts the approach is regulative, in others descriptive; in some it is theoretical, in others
practical; in some it is closely linked to the values of a particular culture, while in others
the aim is to Ž nd common normative terms that rise above cultural differences. Creative
and useful work has been done and continues to be done across the spectrum of these
different approaches, re ecting a consensus that normative concerns matter in the use of
military force even as they matter in other aspects of individual and social life. Yet
conversation has been difŽ cult between and among persons approaching normative
questions regarding military force from different professional, disciplinary or cultural
perspectives. The aim of JME is to stimulate such conversation and thereby to enrich and
advance understanding of the broad spectrum of what is involved in military ethics.
What might this conversation include? I would argue that thinking broadly about
military ethics implies taking account of the particular features of armed con ict in the case
being examined, and making an effort to understand the normative problems posed by that
context for military forces that may be involved in it, either as parties to the con ict or as
peacekeeping or interventionary forces aiming to bring it to an end. Such thinking also
means taking account of accepted international standards and their agreement or differ-
ence with local norms. This line of re ection also implies attention to the sources of such
normative standards and to the evolution of such standards in the form of historical
traditions. In no particular order, a particular study might include examination of such
questions as the following:
1. The relations between and among military norms, societal norms and international
norms, including historical, cultural and other normative bases of military ethics.

© 2002 Taylor & Francis

 Editorial 3
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2. Military life as a distinctive ethical context, and the implications of such a conception.
3. The relations between and among differing disciplinary and professional approaches to
normative thinking about military force.
4. The place of military force as an element of political life, and in particular an element
within the conduct of statecraft.
5. The proper relation of military force to the pursuit of peace.
6. The relation of ethical re ection on military force to law bearing on the use of military
force, in both the international and domestic contexts.
7. How historical traditions regarding proper use of military force should be related to
contemporary issues.
8. How to think normatively about particular issues, such as weapons of mass destruction,
the erosion of non-combatant immunity in contemporary armed con icts, target
selection, and uses of certain tactics or weapons against given targets.
9. And, most generally, how to bring normative thinking of all kinds to bear on the use
of military force in contemporary and future contexts.
This inaugural issue of JME includes articles and features examining normative issues
in military force in a variety of ways and includes attention to some of the concerns I have
identiŽ ed above. Future articles and features will add further perspectives. We invite others
who are concerned with normative issues in the use of military force to join the
conversation JME is now beginning.

Biography
James Turner Johnson (Ph.D., Princeton, 1968) is Professor of Religion and
Associate Member of the Graduate Department of Political Science at Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey, where he has been on the faculty since 1969. His research and
teaching have focused principally on the historical development and application of moral
traditions related to war, peace, and the practice of statecraft. He is the author of many
books and articles on all aspects of war.