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Ethical Decision-Making in the Military Decision-Making Process

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Ethical Decision-Making in the Military Decision-Making Process

Contribution to the JSCOPE 2000 Conference “Moral Considerations in Military Decision Making”.

Dr. D. (Desiree) Verweij

Lieutenant Colonel G.A.A.M. (Gérard) Cloïn (drs.)

Major E.C. (Erhan) Tanercan MED (drs.)

E-mail: ilmo@army.disp.mindef.nl

Tel: +31 76 527 46 53 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +31 76 527 46 53 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Introduction

A great deal has changed in the Royal Netherlands Army (RNLA) in recent years. Not only has the task of the RNLA changed, but so has its composition. To begin with the first aspect: the task of the RNLA and that of the armed forces as a whole has been extended. This means that operations outside the Netherlands in all manner of international frameworks, such as the UN and NATO, have become the rule rather than the exception. The composition of the RNLA and of the armed forces has also changed. We no longer have conscripts in our army; we have all-volunteer forces, forces that wish to reflect society on a number of important counts. One of the significant consequences of the changes in respect of the new task and composition of the armed forces is the confrontation with different cultures and with different and new values and standards. To ensure that military personnel are able to deal with this situation in a professional manner, education in ethics is extremely important. This article elaborates on why this is the case and how such a professional attitude can be achieved.

Section 1 contains an explanation of what exactly constitutes ethics, with section 2 taking this a step further and concentrating on the division of general ethics into corporate ethics and professional ethics. Another division takes us to the ethics of military practice. Thus section 3 deals with a number of

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