JOINT SERVICES CONFERENCE ON PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

2001

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Domestic Role of the Military

THE CONFERENCE

JSCOPE 2001 attracted nearly 200 participants at the Hilton Springfield Hotel in Springfield, Virginia, once again, this year on 25 and 26 January.Participants from six foreign countries attended, as well as cadets and midshipmen from all the US service academies and the New Mexico Military Institute.For the first time, we had participation from Taiwan.

Lieutenant General John Abizaid, Director of Strategic Plans and Policy (J5), Joint Chiefs of Staff,honored JSCOPE participants in presenting the keynote address.He emphasized the widening scope of American military commitments and the unavoidable requirement to make difficult moral choices in carrying out assigned missions.His comments were thought provoking and timely.

Dr. Albert Pierce, the Director of the Center for the Study of Professional Military Ethics at the US Naval Academy, discussed the implications of casualty avoidance in his banquet address.He delineated areas of concern that directly affect professional military ethics.

THE PAPERS

The program and the actual papers presented appear elsewhere on the JSCOPE Web page.The authors are listed below for your convenience.

Dr. Jean Marie Arrigo, “A Pilot Workshop on the Ethics of Political and Military Intelligence for Insiders and Outsiders”

Lieutenant Colonel Reed Bonadonna, USMCR, “News From the Front: The Soldier as Cultural Icon”

Lieutenant Colonel Tim Challans and Major Dave Hater, USMA, “Moral Awareness”

Major (Ret) The Reverend Arthur E. Gans, CD, MTh, “Professional or Bureaucrat: A Meditation on the Military at the Turn of the Millennium”

Dr. Robert Hickson, “Moral Hazards and Other Limits in the Strategic Defense of the Homeland: the Case of GNR Technologies and Their Potentially Self-Sabotaging Confluence”

Dr. Pauline Kaurin, Pacific Lutheran University, “The Siege: Facing the Military-Civilian Culture Chasm”

Dr, Davida Kellogg, University of Maine, “The Role of the Press in Exacerbating Military-Civilian Mutual Understanding”

Dr. Robert Kennedy, University of St. Thomas, “Does the Military Still Fit in Contemporary Culture?Some Classic Insights on a Modern Problem”

Captain Peter G. Kilner, USMA “The Purported Civil-Military Values Gap: Norms Vs. Ideals”

Cadet First Class Kima Megorden, USAFA, “Reconciling Civilian and Military Views on the Ethics of Nuclear Deterrence”

Dr. Thomas J. Nagy, George Washington University, Dr. Joy Gordon , Fairfield University, “Iraq Water Treatment Facilities”

Brigadier General Harold Nevin, Wisconsin Army National Guard and Dr. Carlos Bertha, US Air Force Academy, “The Domestic Role of the National Guard and Reserves”

Captain Mike Purcell, USMC, “A Platonic Justification of International Humanitarian Intervention”

Major Thomas Rauch, USMA, “Against all Enemies, Foreign and Domestic”

Lawrence Rockwood, University of California at San Marcos, and Amelia Simpson, “Military Minds: An Ethical Critique of Huntington’s Model of Military Professionalism”

Dr. Christian Stadler, University of Vienna, “Soldier and Society: On the Domestic Importance of Being Valiant”

Chaplain (Lieutenant Colonel) Herbert B. Strange, US Army Logistics Management College, “The Military as a Role Model for Religious Pluralism and First Amendment Practice”

Lieutenant Colonel (Dr.) Erhan Tanercan, Prof. Dr. A. H. M. (Fred) van Iersel, and Dr. Desiree Verweij, Tilburg University and Netherlands National Defense College, “The Ethical Challenges Resulting from the Domestic Roles of the Dutch Armed Forces”

Captain Maxwell Thibodeaux, USMA, “Centers of Gravity: A New Ethical Decision Point for Just War Theory”

Dr. Jeffrey R. Tiel, Ashland University, “Citizenship: A Lockean Solution to the Civilian/Military Values Gap”

Wei-Lee Lu, Fon-Yean Chang1, Sheng-Te Chang, Tien-Hsing Yang, Chin-Ping Wang, Jong-Yun Hao, Tung-Po Chen, and Chih-Hung Li, Chinese Naval Academy-Taiwan, “Developing Awareness of Professional Military Ethics at the Chinese Naval Academy in Taiwan”

Captain Daniel Wetmore, USAFA, “Human Rights, New Technology and the Just War Tradition”

Captain Christopher Yalanis, USAFA, “The Virtue of Obedience: Military Training and Autonomy”

THE BUSINESS MEETING

The members of the JSCOPE Executive Board for 2001-2002 are as follows:

 

Colonel Tony Hartle, USA Representative and Chairman

            Department of English

            United States Military Academy

            West Point, NY 10996-1791

Lieutenant Colonel Bill Rhodes, USAF Representative

            HQ USAFA/DFP

            2354 Fairchild Drive, Suite 6l37

            USAF Academy, CO 80840-6256

             

Dr. Fran Harbour, Civilian Representative

            Dept. of Public/Int’l Affairs

            George Mason University

            4400 University Drive

            Fairfax, VA 22030

Commander Rob Ayer, USCG Representative

                        Department of Humanities (DH)

                        US Coast Guard Academy

                        New London, CT 06320

Commander Joe Catoe, USN Representative

                        History Department

                        United States Naval Academy

                        117 Decatur Road

                        Annapolis, Maryland 21402

           

Major Heather MacQuarrie , Canadian Forces Representative

Director of Defence Ethics,

NDHQ CRS

MGen Pearkes Bldg

101 Colonel By drive

Ottawa Ontario Canada K1A OK2

Lieutenant Colonel Bill Stooksbury, USMC Representative

            Ethics Center

            United States Naval Academy

            Annapolis, Maryland 21402

           

The dates for JSCOPE 2002 are 24 and 25 January.Although the decision is not yet final, the location will most probably be at a hotel in the DC area.“Current Ethical Issues Affecting the Military Profession" will continue as a perennial theme, suitable for papers, but the special topic for next year will be:

Moral Issues in Military Intervention

The Call for Papers for JSCOPE 2002 will include details about the topic and paper submission requirements.

SPECIAL NOTES

JSCOPE participants were saddened this year to learn of the death of Professor Manuel Davenport, Texas A&M University.Dr. Davenport served for several years on the JSCOPE Executive Board as the civilian representative and presented many papers at our conferences.Most importantly, he provided unstinting support of JSCOPE’s goals.

The papers presented this year, notable in their quality, were also impressive in their scope.We owe thanks to the authors for their admirable work, and we owe a special thanks to Dr. Carl Ficarotta, US Air Force Academy, who served as the Program Chair for 2001.Dr. Ficarotta also maintains the JSCOPE web site at(http://www.usafa.edu/isme).

JSCOPE remains the only long-standing international forum for the exchange of ideas concerning the conduct and character of men and women in uniform and the development of professional military ethics.The efforts of JSCOPE participants provide the sole basis for its continuation and the service it provides.