...Military Ethics PHI208: Ethics and Moral Reasoning Prof Whitney Easton 10 March, 2014 Military Ethics This paper will discuss the topic of military ethics using the utilitarian theory. It will also incorporate the ethical system of virtue ethics. “Military ethics is about our learning what is good and true and then having the courage to do and be what and who we ought to. For military ethics is not about his or her successes or failures; it is not about their virtues or vices. Military ethics is about our heritage and history, and it is about our responsibility to be men and women of character.” (Toner, 2003) Strong military ethics are vital to maintaining disciplined service members, to providing a clear moral compass to follow and developing good character as well. First, military ethics could easily be applied to either theory, utilitarian or deontological; however, the utilitarian theory seems to be the better fit of the two. Even though it may seem that choosing the utilitarian theory focuses strictly on the greater good for the mass, it is however, a straightforward and direct way to evaluate behavior. Another ethical system, virtue ethics, can be associated with military ethics because by its definition virtue ethics emphasizes the role of one’s character and the virtues that one’s character embodies for determining or evaluating ethical behavior. (Wikipedia) The ethics that the military services have established follow a similar intent amongst the men and...
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...This paper will show how ethics are used in both the military, and within the regular civilian business world. The military is such a large organization and has been able to maintain a level of ethics by using a program called the Army values, which this paper will briefly cover. Along with the way some businesses implement their own style of ethics, but for both organizations the structure of ethics doesn’t really matter if its message isn’t understood and conveyed to the best of their abilities. Hopefully this short paper creates a better understanding and is informative to the reader. The United States army has produced many articles, field manuals, etc. all of which have been edited and revised over the years to help change with the...
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...Business Ethics versus Military Ethics January 19, 20115 Business Ethics versus Military Ethics "The ultimate basis for ethics is clear: Human behavior has consequences for the welfare of others. We are capable of acting toward others in such a way as to increase or decrease the quality of their lives. We are capable of helping or harming. What is more, we are theoretically capable of understanding when we are doing the one and when the other. This is so because we have the capacity to put ourselves imaginatively in the place of others and recognize how we would be affected if someone were to act toward us as we are acting toward others" (Elder & Paul, 2003). There are many types of ethics and many ways to incorporate practices to enforce ethics as well as punish violators of ethics requirements. Two categories of ethics that are similar yet different are ethics in Corporate America and ethics in the United States Air Force (U.S.A.F.). First, we need to understand what ethics are. Ethics contributes to the learning what is right or wrong. "Doing the right thing is not as straight forward as conveyed in a great deal of business ethics literature"(McNamara, C. 2003, 6). The definition between corporations and the military provides us with a general description of ethics. Are military and corporate ethics different? Business Ethics in Corporate America The Business ethics concept means many things to many different people. It is coming to know what is "right or wrong in...
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...Leadership, Ethics, and Scandal Leadership and ethics are two topics that are a part of the training for all military leaders, both officers and enlisted and across all branches of service. Leadership can be defined in any number of ways. Kouzes and Posner quote Genentech executive Alan Keith as saying “Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen” (Kouzes & Posner, 2007, p. 16). Keith’s idea of what defines leadership is one of the better definitions in print today. Ethics are defined as the moral principles that dictate a person’s or a group’s behavior. By using the ideas and writings of Terry Price (2008) and Craig Johnson (2012) a concept of what ethical leadership can be obtained. Ethical leadership is knowing what your core values are and having the courage to live them in all parts of your life in service of the common good; whether it is in private or in public (Price, 2008/ Johnson, 2012). Over the past few years the Army has seen its share of scandals involving a number of top leaders. A few of the more notable reports involved former four-star General William “Kip” Ward, one-star Brigadier General Jeffrey A. Sinclair, former Colonel James H. Johnson III, and former CIA Director and retired Army four-star General David H. Petraeus (Briggs, 2012, Nov. 15). Army four-star general William “Kip” Ward, the first officer to open the new Africa Command in 2008, came under scrutiny for allegations...
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...ETHICS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR AND DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO ETHICS IN MILITARY Abstract Ethics and morals are used instead of each other in everyday life. However, there are some differences between these two expressions. Those who think that ethics is different than morals argue that ethics is more universal compared to morals. While moral is a national concept, ethics is considered to be a universal notion. It is observed that discussions on ethics in the public administration have been increasing in the world since 1970’s. Although corruption in the political-bureaucratic system has been considered to be a characteristic of underdeveloped countries, certain problems observed in the public administration sector of some western countries in 1970’s drew the attention of the public opinion and excited debates on ethics. The notion of ethics in the public administration as it is in the West has been drawing more attention in Turkey in recent years. The legislation regarding ethical infrastructure in the Turkish Public administration has been scattered until 2004. In this article, the developments of ethical issues are explained in legal framework and also, different approaches in military from different countries are compared. Comments are made on the differences and similarities of “codes of ethics” and “moral values”. Key Words: Business Ethics, Codes, Military, Morals, Public Administration. Introduction While ethical and moral are...
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...Military Detainees and Physician Ethics Submitted by Wendy Andersen Prepared for Denise Haynes ME1420 Medical Law and Ethics UMA November 11, 2013 CERTIFICATE OF AUTHORSHIP: I certify that I am the author. I have cited all sources from which I used data, ideas, or words, either quoted directly or paraphrased. I also certify that this paper was prepared by me specifically for this course. ME1420 Medical Law and Ethics Military Detainees and Physician Ethics The article I have chosen for this paper is entitled “U.S. Military Doctors Abetted Prisoner Abuse, Study Says” and comes from the November 4, 2013 edition of the Chicago Tribune. This article caught my attention because it deals with the events that happened September 11, 2001 and medical ethics both. Both of these issues hit close to home for me and are very important issues. This article talks of the detainees who were unethically and immorally abused during interrogations over the past dozen years relating to the events of September 11, 2001 in New York. These interrogations are stated to have taken place in Afghanistan, Iraq, at secret CIA prisons, and Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base. According to the study, doctors just stood by while the abusive interrogations took place. In some instances the doctors would intervene, but why or how often is not mentioned. I do believe there were some respect issues where this abuse is concerned. The doctors may have been made to feel like if they...
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...local communities, but there are communities on a large scale as well that we call nations. They may live on separate continents, but we have to interact with one another and come to common ground in order to delegate. The global organization I police of the world. When there is trouble in other nations, we feel responsible to help those countries that do not have the same capabilities as we do. We set up post filled with military personnel to help other nations keep peace between each other. We also take on the responsibility of keeping the world free from terrorism. I believe that each one of these qualities have many good sides to them. There are some cases where the police have to decide when to act and when not to. You could lock up a young kid that had a small amount of drugs on him, or you could use this information to get to the source of the problem. I feel as if we need to be very careful in picking which situations to act and when not to. For the most part I agree in every aspect of the decisions that have been made concerning the military but there are a few issues that have to be considered when going in to other parts of the world and implementing your culture. The United States is one nation on a very short list of other nations that have state of the art technology and capabilities. With how much knowledge we have gained and the technology that allows us to learn more and more each day, the United States takes on the responsibility of looking out for...
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...Elements of the Profession of Arms and Their Impact on the Military Logistician by Major Eric A. McCoy Is military service a profession or an occupation? Is there really a difference? The author argues that there is and that Soldiers definitely are members of a profession. Following the Vietnam War, the Army suffered from an evident depression, particularly within the officer corps and noncommissioned officer corps, that led to a revamping of our professional institutions and doctrine. Observing this process, the late sociologist Charles Moskos theorized that the decline resulted from the Army seeming to develop the characteristics of a civilian occupation rather than the profession it had always considered itself to be. The basic distinction between these two concep-tions of the military lies in their relationship to, and legitimization by, American society. Moskos noted that society legitimizes an institution “in terms of norms and values, a purpose transcending individual self-interest in favor of a presumed higher good. Members of a professional institution are often seen as following a calling captured in words like duty, honor, country.” Conversely, an occupational model receives its legitimacy in terms of the marketplace, where supply and demand are paramount and self-interest takes priority over communal interests.1 A generation later, we find similarities as we assess the impacts of a decade of persistent conflict on the all-volunteer Army. Our Army's senior...
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...these behaviors include topics of motivation, leader behavior and power, interpersonal communication, group structure and processes, learning, attitude development and perception, change processes, conflict, work design, and work stress. The U.S. Army is the only organization that I have been exposed to since I started working as an 18 year old and I’ve seen many different forms of organizational behavior throughout these 15 years. When I first entered the military in 1997, the Army was extremely strict and structured. It’s still a bureaucracy and structured type of organization but back then it seemed to be extremely structured and strict. At least I perceived it to be that way as an 18 year old coming straight from home. As privates we stood at attention or parade rest for anyone that was higher ranking than us and had to do everything we were told to do without question. This was something that I was not used to and really thought that I had made a mistake in choosing to enter the military. My first 4 years in the military seemed to be a nightmare for me and I really did not think I was going to stay in past my initial enlistment because I hated it. My supervisors were mean, I felt like I worked like a slave because we worked every weekend, and I couldn’t get off the overweight program so I was constantly harassed...
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...At this time the United States of America does not required men to serve in the military like other countries? Well I have wondered why myself to. But I am going to point out three reasons on why I think men should have to serve in this essay. One being men need to learn discipline. Two we need to keep this country that we live in safe and secured. And lastly to boost our economy and put more people to work. Men should serve in the military to lean discipline. Men these day have no respect for there parents let alone the cops. The military will help train them to respect people above them. Not only that it will help them with work ethic from the discipline point of view to be able to do their job and work hard at doing it. They will break you down and build you back up through training and physical training. If you screw up they will teach you how to act and then make you do some kind of physical training so it will sink you to your head. It is vital in our country to keep it protected to keep our freedoms that our fore fathers fought for and all the men and women before us. There for all men should be required to serve in the military. We are in a world of terrorism in this day and age, for example September 11, 2001 automatically comes to mind when I think of terrorism. Therefore men shouldn’t have to be asked to join they should just want to join if they want to keep their freedoms that they have. Where are the jobs in this country? Where is the money in this country...
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...On January 27, 1973 the U.S. military draft ended, which meant that when you turned 18, as a male, you didn’t have to go fight in war. The draft is like a giant pool that males had to enter so in case our military needed extra help they would use the draft guys to help. The only problem with the draft was that if you had a medical issue then it wasn’t likely that you would be able to serve in the military. My father graduated two years after the draft ended. He was planning on going into the draft, but he tore two ligaments in his knee, which meant that he couldn’t go. On the other hand, the draft helped when America went to fight Vietnam because we were shorthanded. If the draft was reinstated there would be a lot of people that didn’t want to be there that were forced, people with a bad work ethic that would be trained, and with having an army that is trained to protect America we could really do some damage....
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...training is required to do this job; conversely an architect designs buildings in that same downtown. The architect is required to have special education and usually attends other training throughout their career. To further clarify this point, one could go to the architect to buy a hotdog, but one would not seek out that hotdog vendor to design a building. Based on these definitions, the Army is a “Profession”. When a Soldier starts out in the Army, the individual attends what is the initial entry training that is where they start their special education and training. They learn basic soldiering skills along with learning the Army values and ethics. The Soldiers then continues their special education and training by completing advanced initial training. This usually consists of specialized training in the area of their Military Occupational Specialty which is the main job they will do while in the Army. While these two different types of training are completed early in their Army career, their education and training does not conclude at that point. As the Soldier continues their career, they must attend other training that requires...
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...Since 1775 the American military has been called upon to perform many tasks. From winning large global wars, to humanitarian missions, and to even mediating global politics the US military has risen to every occasion and fulfilled their role put forth in the Constitution. No other organization has such a stellar legacy, or track record of upholding American values or promoting American policies on the world stage. Americans have a proud military legacy which is now facing a crisis point. America is in jeopardy of destroying their proud military tradition as a result of three disastrous disparities that have developed from the current political climate of the past four decades. The military government relationship has severe divergences in ideology, experience, and demographics. The ideological disparity is a problem of ethics. The American...
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...Incidentally, there are drawbacks and benefits of expanding women’s roles within the military. Transhistorical, mobilizing women became a beneficial and skillful deployment by the military; thus, utilizing the case of the militarized Peruvian women in the organization PCP when they declared war on the Peruvian government. The PCP demonstrated within their ranks and assaults as to how crucial their female soldiers were towards their political advancement of the civil war. Subsequently, with referencing towards the first military commander of PCP Edith Lagos, she was known for her assaults on a governmental prison that led the liberation of over nearly 300 captives. (pg.319) Edith’s involvement and agency served as an inspiration to the PCP and...
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...This essay is all about accountability. Where it came from and why it’s important today. The word “accountable” has so much history behind it. Accountability is important on all levels. Being able to be accountable is a corner stone of being a working member of society. Accountability is a word with many different meanings. This essay will explore what accountability is, where it comes from, and what it means to “be accountable”. Websters dictionary defines it as such: the quality or state of being accountable; especially; an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for ones actions. "Accountability" stems from late Latin accomptare (to account), a prefixed form of computare (to calculate), which in turn derived from putare (to reckon). While the word itself does not appear in English until its use in 13th century Norman England, the concept of account-giving has ancient roots in record keeping activities related to governance and money-lending systems that first developed in Ancient Israel, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and later, Rome What is accountability and the definition: (DOD) The obligation imposed by law or lawful order or regulation on an officer or other person for keeping accurate record of property, documents, or funds. The person having this obligation may or may not have actual possession of the property, documents, or funds. Accountability is concerned primarily with records, while responsibility is concerned primarily with custody, care,...
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