Call for Chapters: Force Short of War

Call for Chapters

- - - Please distribute widely - - -

Force Short of War: A Multidisciplinary Normative Approach

Jai Galliott (University of New South Wales, Kensington)

& Daniel Brunstetter (University of California, Irvine)

The use of force short of war is now commonplace, in large part owing to casualty aversiveness and the explosion of emerging technologies. It usually involves the selective or limited use of military force by a state to achieve political objectives and assumes many forms. These include targeted killing, assassination, setting up no-fly zones, special-forces raids, very limited duration bombing campaigns or missile strikes, and ‘low intensity’ counterrorism and counterinsurgency operations. However, ‘force short of war’ also encompasses the provision of military support for regime stabilization or regime change through support of secessionist/independence movements. This multi-disciplinary volume asks a number of questions about the moral, legal and political status of such operations, the strategic situations in which such force is best used, and whether existing rules and regulations are sufficiently robust to deal with the moral challenges the use of limited force entails.

We welcome high quality abstracts from philosophers, lawyers, political/international relations theorists, strategists and other concerned researchers on any topic from the following (non-exhaustive) list:

- the difference between war and force short of war (and/or limited force)

- the role of traditional just war theory in modern conflict

- the need for a new third tenet: jus ad vim

- the limits of force short of war

- IHL and force short of war

- legitimate authority/authorisation of force short of war

- Low intensity conflicts in Syria, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere

- targeted killing and assassination

- regime change

- secession

- drones

- links to the invasion of sovereignty

- autonomous systems

- cyber warfare

- the politics of force short of war

- the history of conflicts short of war

- counterinsurgency (guerilla) operations

- counterterrorism operations

- military/police dichotomy in conflict

- the ethics of arming rebels

- limited force and the responsibility to protect (R2P)

- the role of sanctions

- providing limited military force to help other governments fighting civil wars

- force short of war and the connection to peace

Abstracts should be 200 words in length, clearly convey the core argument of the proposed chapter and show a strong thematic connection. All abstracts should be accompanied by a biosketch of up to 150 words, detailing one's qualifications and research interests. Full papers are expected to be 7,000-8,000 words. We have interest from a ‘Category A’ university publisher and confirmed options with a ‘Category B’ press (A-E scale).

All submissions and questions should be directed to: jaichristiangalliott@gmail.com.

Deadline for submissions: 1 June 2015

Notification of acceptance: 1 July 2015

Cécile Fabre on military ethics

Cécile Fabre has an interesting article on military ethics in the journal Ethics. She argues that we ought to separate the ethical issues involved in starting a war from the ethical issues involved in ending it. That sounds right to me. The article is also fairly thorough. You can comment on it at PEA Soup where you can also find a critical introduction by Helen Frowe. 

War and Peace in Political Thought - graduate conference, Budapest

From an email: 

Central European University (CEU), Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) and the Pázmány Péter Catholic University (PPKE) jointly organize the First Istvan Hont Graduate Conference in Political Thought. The conference commemorates the legacy of Istvan Hont (1947-2013), influential Hungarian-born lecturer and writer on the history of political thought, Fellow of King's College at the University of Cambridge.

The conference is part of a larger framework of cooperation between the three host universities and aims to bring together doctoral students interested in political thought from various disciplines. The conference is devoted to the topic of ‘War and Peace’ in history, philosophy and political thought. Keynote speakers will include:

Catherine Zuckert (Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame)

TBA

The conference organizers invite doctoral students to submit their proposals which discuss issues of war and peace. Submissions are welcome from students of various disciplines such as intellectual history, philosophy, political science, or international relations.

The conference aims to investigate some of the following questions: How to define war and what were the past attempts to define it? Who is to wage wars, in what manner, for what reasons and are these questions relevant? Is peace only a lack of war? Will the next World War be indeed fought with sticks and stones? How is and was the theme of war and peace pictured in public discourses and in individual reflections? Topics based on these questions may include, but are not limited to the following areas:

• Theories of War: just war, realism, right of self-defense, militarism, intervention, religion and war, modernity and total war
• Theories of Peace: pacifism, non-violent struggle, limits of toleration, religious and secular peace movements
• The "next war": the “last war”, hyperreal war, cyber war, hybrid warfare, drones, crisis theory
• Discourses about war and peace: intellectuals and war, myths of wars, Cold War narratives, propaganda

The language of the conference is English.

Date: September 17-19, 2015

Venue: TBA (The event is going to take place at one of the organizing universities.)

Please submit your proposal of 300-400 words to hont.conf.2015@gmail.com together with your name and affiliation. The deadline for submitting proposals is May 31, 2015.

Some support for accommodation or travel expenses will be provided for participants who have no access to institutional funding for academic travel.

Further information: https://hontconf2015.wordpress.com/

Nancy Sherman . . .

. . . the military ethicist, has a new book out and an Op-Ed in the LA times (see the responses too).