Call for papers: The Ethics of War and Peace

From an email. . .
‘The Ethics of War and Peace’
Call for paper: Societas Ethica conference Maribor, Slovenia August 21-24, 2014

Wars have always been a part of human life, as have attempts to end them. Questions of war and peace are a constant challenge for ethics.

2014 is the centenary of the outbreak of World War I and The Ethics of War and Peace is the theme of the annual conference of Societas Ethica. Recent European history, especially the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, has shown that the tensions behind World War I are still with us.

The pledge “Never again!” was not fulfilled. New wars arose, within and outside Europe, that manifested still other origins: for example, wars related to colonialism, imperialism and struggles for independence, to ambitions for hegemony, to global inequalities between rich and poor, to religious extremism, to drug trafficking, to overpopulation, to the illegal arms trade, etc. Today we witness atrocious civil wars in the Middle East, and the ‘war on terror’ has led to new forms of war such as the use of drones and cyber attacks.

The realities of war in the twenty-first century are in desperate need of thorough moral reflection. Our cultural heritages offer diverse reflective contributions here, ranging from Sun-tsu’s Art of war and Clausewitz’s Vom Kriege to Thomas Aquinas’ and Hugo Grotius’ theories of just war, or from Hobbes’ analysis of aggressive human nature to Kantian attempts to set up a stable world order without wars.

Confirmed speakers:

Professor Peter Wallensteen (Uppsala University) From War Termination to Quality Peace: Conditions for Perpetual Peace

Professor Nigel Biggar (University of Oxford) On Not Always Giving the Devil Benefit of Law: 'Just war', humanitarian intervention and international law

Dr. Zorica Maros (Catholic Theological Faculty, Sarajevo) From abuse of memory to revenge. Im(possibility) of forgiveness

Dr. Siddharth Mallavarapu (South Asian University) The responsibility to Protect-UN-Program from a perspective from the South-East

Through different parallel sessions Societas Ethica will address the major moral questions regarding war and peace. These sessions will focus on:
The roots of war (e.g. human aggression, religious and ideological motivations, social life, etc.) theories of just war (religious and philosophical
Perspectives, including questions about ‘humanitarian intervention’)
The rules of war (e.g. the treatment of prisoners – Guantanamo, hostage kidnapping – child soldiers, the arms trade, etc.)
New forms of warfare (cyber war, the use of drones)
War and profit (the privatization of war, arms exports, etc.)
Ending war (peacemaking and reconciliation including religious and secular contributions, war tribunals)
Pacifism
Open channel (for PhD students only)

Contributions will concentrate on one of the topics listed above and explicitly address moral questions related to it. Paper proposals should contain no more than 800 words (excluding bibliography), and clearly present a moral question or argument addressing one of the aforementioned topics. The deadline is March 31, 2014. Papers can be presented either in English, German, or French.

Please send in the following two documents as Word attachments to johanna.romare@liu.se:

Document 1: Your name, first name, email address, institutional address, the title of your abstract, the topic under which your paper proposal falls, and, if eligible, your application to participate in the Young Scholars’ Award competition (see information below).

Document 2: Your paper proposal including bibliography (max. 10 references) and title with all identifying references removed.

Conference papers will be published in Conference Proceedings. Selected papers will be published in a special volume of the new journal De Ethica. A Journal of Philosophical, Theological and Applied Ethics.

Societas Ethica Young Scholars’ Award is awarded to the best presentation by a young scholar. Young scholars for the purpose of this competition are doctoral students and researchers who earned their degree less than two years ago and do not have a tenure-track academic position. For more information about Societas Ethica Young Scholars’ Award, please visit the website at www.societasethica.info.

http://www.societasethica.info/annual-conference-2014?l=en

Best regards

Johanna Romare

Doctoral Candidate

Scriba for Societas Ethica (European Society for Research in Ethics)

Centre for Applied Ethics

Department for Culture and Communication
Linköping University
581 83 Linköping
Sweden
Mobile: +46 73 251 11 94

Please visit us at www.liu.se/ikk/cte
Societas Ethica www.societasethica.info

Interesting set of articles

Philosophia just released their latest issue. It contains seven articles on pacifism that all look interesting. 

Call for Papers for Philosophy and Technology’s special issue on The Ethics of Cyber Conflicts

Call for Papers for Philosophy and Technology’s special issue on The Ethics of Cyber Conflicts

GUEST EDITORS

Ludovica Glorioso (NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence)

INTRODUCTION

In the age of the so-called information revolution, the ability to control, disrupt or manipulate the enemy’s information infrastructure has become as decisive as weapon superiority with respect to determining the outcome of conflicts. So much so that the Pentagon defines cyberspace as a new domain in which war is waged, alongside land, sea, air and space.

Cyber conflicts, as part of a state’s defensive or offensive strategy, are a fast growing phenomenon, which is rapidly changing the dynamics of combat as well as the role that warfare plays in political negotiations and the life of civil societies. Such changes are not the exclusive concern of the military. They also have a significant bearing on ethicists and policymakers, since existing ethical theories of war, together with national and international regulations, struggle to address the novelties of this phenomenon. The issue could not be more pressing and there is a much felt and fast escalating need to share information and coordinate ethical theorising about cyber conflicts.

This special issue of Springer’s Philosophy & Technology (http://www.springer.com/13347) follows the organization of the international workshop on Ethics of Cyber Conflict (http://www.ccdcoe.org/428.html), held on November 21-22, 2013 at the Centro Alti Studi per la Difesa (CASD) with the support of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence.

TOPICS

We solicit the submission of papers that investigate issues concerning the way ICTs are affecting our ethical views of conflicts and warfare, as well as the analysis of just-war principles in the light of the dissemination of cyber conflicts; humanitarian military interventions based on ICTs; whether preventive acts of cyber war may satisfy jus-ad-bellum criteria; challenges of upholding jus-in-bello standards in cyber warfare, especially in asymmetric conflicts; attribution and proportionality of the response to cyber attacks; moral permissibility of automated responses and ethical deployment of military robotic weapons.

TIMETABLE

April 1, 2014: Deadline papers submissions

May 1, 2014: Deadline reviews papers

June 1, 2014: Deadline revised papers

2015: Publication of the special issue

SUBMISSION DETAILS

To submit a paper for this special issue, authors should go to the journal’s Editorial Manager http://www.editorialmanager.com/phte/

The author (or a corresponding author for each submission in case of co- authored papers) must register into EM.

The author must then select the special article type: "Special issue on The Ethics of Cyber Conflicts” from the selection provided in the submission process. This is needed in order to assign the submissions to the Guest Editors.

Submissions will then be assessed according to the following procedure:

New Submission => Journal Editorial Office => Guest Editor(s) => Reviewers => Reviewers’ Recommendations => Guest Editor(s)’ Recommendation => Editor-in-Chief’s Final Decision => Author Notification of the Decision.

The process will be reiterated in case of requests for revisions.

For any further information please contact:

Ludovica Glorioso, ludovica.glorioso@ccdcoe.org

Call for Abstracts: Just War workshop

Dear all,

We are convening a workshop on just war theory, titled 'The War of Ethics in the Ethics of War' at the MANCEPT conference from September 8th - 10th.
Please find the abstract below.

Each presenter will have 50 minutes in total, consisting of a 25-30 minute presentation, followed by comments from a discussant and questions from the floor. If you are interested in participating please send an abstract or full paper by June 1st. If sending only an abstract a full paper will be required by July 15th.

Abstracts to be sent to:
Ewan E. Mellor: ewan.mellor@eui.eu
Or Milla Vaha: mevaha@utu.fi

MANCEPT PROPOSAL
The War of Ethics in the Ethics of War

“War is always judged twice, first with reference to the reasons states have for fighting, secondly with reference to the means they adopt.” This is Michael Walzer’s canonical statement regarding the independence of the jus ad bellum from the jus in bello which grounds the principle of the moral equality of combatants within the just war tradition. In recent years this principle has come under sustained critical scrutiny from those who believe it is morally incoherent and philosophically unsubstantiated, led by Jeff McMahan and David Rodin, among others. These scholars instead argue for a principle of the moral inequality of combatants, in which combatants would be individually judged according to the justice of the war in which they are fighting. This morally individualist and cosmopolitan approach to the ethics of war would completely transform the nature and practice of war and, concomitantly, the nature of the international system as a whole. The debate over the principle of the moral equality of combatants is also closely related to a number of other debates within international political theory and international ethics, including the debate between communitarianism and cosmopolitanism, debates about the role and place of individual rights in the international system, and debates about the relationship between moral principles and political decision making.

Although philosophically powerful and persuasive, much of the revisionist literature has been conducted at a high level of abstraction. As such, this workshop seeks to engage with and further the debate about the moral equality of combatants by encouraging contributions that deal with some of the implications of the revisionist argument from a political theory and international relations perspective.

On the Military's ethics crisis

. . . in The National Interest. 

Call for Publications

Call for Publications

Theme: Is the idea of peace relevant for the age of asymmetrical
warfare?
Publication: Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory
Date: Special Issue
Deadline: 1.7.2014

__________________________________________________

Since the end of World War II, most military conflict has been
asymmetrical in nature (that is between a state actor on the one hand
and a non-state entity or network of such entities on the other).
Examples range from the Algerian War of Independence against the
French to the recent American engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When this is the face of war, is the idea of peace (with its classic
cosmopolitan features regarding finality of claims, mutual
recognition, the creation of lasting legal arrangements to enforce
agreements and cooperation between former enemies) still relevant?
Does it make sense to talk about a conflict with the Taliban or Al
Qaeda terminating in a state of peace? If our idea of peace needs to
be revised, how should we revise it? Does it need to be supplemented
by other ideas? Which ideas? Can the concept of peace still serve as
a useful regulative ideal even when it becomes further and further
removed from how wars actually wind down?

Please submit papers of no more than 9,000 words to
theoriasa@gmail.com by July 1st, 2014. Papers should be formatted for
blind review and should follow Theoria's House formatting rules.
These are available here:
http://journals.berghahnbooks.com/_uploads/th/th_style_guide.pdf

Guest Editor: Nir Eisikovits, Suffolk University
Email: theoriasa@gmail.com

Call for papers

Call for Papers: 

Is the idea of peace relevant for the age of asymmetrical warfare?

A special Issue of Theoria, A Journal of Social and Political Theory

Nir Eisikovits, Suffolk University, Guest Editor

Since the end of World War II, most military conflict has been asymmetrical in nature (that is between a state actor on the one hand and a non-state entity or network of such entities on the other). Examples range from the Algerian War of Independence against the French to the recent American engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When this is the face of war, is the idea of peace (with its classic cosmopolitan features regarding finality of claims, mutual recognition, the creation of lasting legal arrangements to enforce agreements and cooperation between former enemies) still relevant? Does it make sense to talk about a conflict with the Taliban or Al Qaeda terminating in a state of peace? If our idea of peace needs to be revised, how should we revise it? Does it need to be supplemented by other ideas? Which ideas? Can the concept of peace still serve as a useful regulative ideal even when it becomes further and further removed from how wars actually wind down?

Please submit papers of no more than 9,000 words to theoriasa@gmail.com by July 1st, 2014. Papers should be formatted for blind review and should follow Theoria's House formatting rules. These are available here: http://journals.berghahnbooks.com/_uploads/th/th_style_guide.pdf

Call for papers

C A L L   F O R   P A P E R S   

DE ETHICA

A JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND APPLIED ETHICS

www.de-ethica.com

Special Issue: "The Ethics of War and Peace"

 

De Ethica is a new journal seeking to publish scholarly works at the intersections of philosophical, theological and applied ethics. It is a fully peer-reviewed, open-access publication hosted by Linköping University Electronic Press. We are committed to making papers of high academic quality accessible to a wide audience.

De Ethica is published in cooperation with Societas Ethica, the European Society for Research in Ethics. Societas Ethica was founded in Basel, Switzerland in 1964; today it has more than 200 members from more than 20 countries, representing a variety of theological and philosophical traditions. The annual conferences of Societas Ethica draw speakers from across the globe and provide a lively forum for intellectual exchange. Like Societas Ethica, De Ethica aims to create dialogue across national, political, and religious boundaries.

The first issue in the 2015 volume will be devoted to the theme of this year’s Societas Ethica Annual Conference: “The Ethics of War and Peace.” (http://www.societasethica.info/annual-conference-2014?l=en) A non-exhaustive list of possible topics includes: 

• The roots of war (human aggression, religious and ideological motivations, etc.)
• Theories of just war (jus as bellum, jus in bello; religious and philosophical perspectives, including questions about humanitarian intervention)
• The rules of war (the treatment of prisoners, child soldiers, the arms trade, etc.)
• New forms of warfare (cyber war, the use of drones, etc.)
• War and profit (the privatization of war, arms exports, etc.)
• Ending war (peacemaking and reconciliation including religious and secular contributions, war tribunals)
• Pacifism

The deadline for the thematic issue is November 15, 2014. All submissions will be subjected to rigorous blind review. Submissions should be between 4,000 and 8,000 words in length. All submissions must be appropriately anonymized and should be accompanied by a separate file containing an abstract of 150 to 200 words and all relevant author information. For more information about layout, style, and the submission and review process, please see the Instructions for Authors: http://www.de-ethica.com/instructions_for_authors/default.asp  

De Ethica is committed to a speedy and author-friendly review process; in most cases, the editors will notify the authors of their decision within three months.

Please send submissions only to our assistant editor, Heidi Jokinen (submissions@de-ethica.com). General comments and enquiries about the journal should be directed to Marcus Agnafors (executive.editor@de-ethica.com) or Maren Behrensen (associate.editor@de-ethica.com).

Editor in Chief

Brenda Almond (University of Hull, United Kingdom)

Executive Editor

Marcus Agnafors (Linköping University, Sweden)

Associate Editor

Maren Behrensen (Linköping University, Sweden)

Assistant Editor

Heidi Jokinen (Åbo Akademi University, Finland)

           

Editorial Board

Göran Collste (Linköping University, Sweden)

Marcus Düwell (Universiteit Utrecht, the Netherlands)

Raimond Gaita (University of Melbourne, Australia; and King’s College London, United Kingdom)

Hille Haker (Loyola University Chicago, United States; and Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Germany)

Robert Heeger (Utrecht University, the Netherlands)

Neil Messer (Winchester University, United Kingdom)

Michael Northcott (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom)

Philip Pettit (Princeton University, United States)

Hans Ulrich (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany)

Peter Vallentyne (University of Missouri, United States)

Hinman reviews Primoratz on Terrorism

Lawrence M. Hinman reviews Igor Primoratz's Terrorism: A Philosophical Intriduction here. 

Teaching military ethics properly

Here is a story in the NY Times that describes a military ethics course that is being taught properly: It is being co-taught by a young, but competent philosopher (I've met Mr. Pence and I know his work) and a retired Air Force Major General. Kudos to Notre Dame for making this possible.

Too many classes in applied ethics are taught by people who either know nothing about ethics or about the subject they are talking about. Too many academic papers in applied ethics (military ethics, bioethics, computer ethics, business ethics, etc) are written by people who are experts in one and think the other is trivial. I hope Mr. Pence and MG Latiff get to take a close look at the literature in military ethics together and write something useful.