All Issues

Issue 2024/01

AI and Autonomy in Weapons: War and Conflict out of Control?

Dear readers, the first issue of “Ethics and Armed Forces” was published ten years ago. We are therefore revisiting the topic of that issue – “Anonymous Killing by new Technologies? The Soldier between Conscience and Machine”. In addition to…

Core Issues of European Military Ethics

In October 2023, servicemen and women from 19 nations participated in the first military exercise for the planned EU Rapid Deployment Force in Rota, Spain. The sheer practical dimensions of such multinational operations are likely to pose great…

Resilience - aspects of crisis competence

The cover photo of this issue shows a Ukrainian soldier in the trench near Bakhmut. The photographers Kostyantin and Vlada Liberov took this and other harrowing pictures of the Ukrainian war. It is emblematic of the Ukrainians’ spirit of…

War in Ukraine

The Russian invasion of the neighboring state on February 24, 2022, is now almost automatically associated with the buzzword of the "turning point" or the beginning of a "new era". Even if this term expresses the widespread shock about the…

Women, Peace & Security: The Long Road to Gender Justice

On February 24, 2022, Russia launched its war of aggression against Ukraine. Although preparations for this edition of “Ethics and Armed Forces” had already reached an advanced stage, the question arose of whether the “war in Europe” might not…

Innere Führung and Military Ethos Under Discussion

Between aspiration and reality – Where does Innere Führung stand? Can the familiar model of the “citizen in uniform” still maintain its claim to validity, or is it in need of readjustment or even re-evaluation and change? That was the opening…

Climate Change as a Threat Multiplier

Global climate change poses an existential danger to humanity, but has faded into the background somewhat during the coronavirus pandemic. Now the issue is back with force. In the United States, President Biden formally rejoined the Paris…

Vulnerability and Resilience During the Corona Pandemic

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called the corona pandemic the greatest crisis of our age. It is the biggest challenge the world has faced since the United Nations was established 75 years ago. This is not only about containing the…

The Core Question: Nuclear Deterrence in the Focus of Peace Ethics and Security Policy

“Our world is marked by a perverse dichotomy that tries to defend and ensure stability and peace through a false sense of security sustained by a mentality of fear and mistrust.” With these words, spoken in Nagasaki at the end of 2019, Pope…

Between Personality Development and Skills Acquisition: Ethics for Soldiers

According to a definition by social ethicist Thomas Bohrmann, the ethical field referred to as military professional ethics aims to investigate ethical principles – such as human dignity and justice – that are relevant to society as a whole and…

Conflict Zone Cyberspace: Prospects for Security and Peace

“Six out of ten internet users worry about cyberwars,” reported IT industry association Bitkom in early 2019. It is possible that for many people, the survey conjured up a danger that they had never considered before. But still the story…

One Europe – One Army? On the Value of Military Integration

On November 11, 1918, the First World War came to an end. As France’s President Emmanuel Macron explained in a speech marking the centenary of the Armistice, this historic date forms an important point of reference for the European peace…

Strategic Foresight: a Broader Vision, Fewer Crises?

The question at the core of foresight processes is: What is in store for us? What do we need to prepare ourselves for? This issue of “Ethics and Armed Forces” goes one step further. Can foresight be made to serve the goals of peace ethics – or,…

Terror – The Fear Profiteers

Paris, Brussels, Istanbul, Nice, Berlin, Barcelona, London – the web of terror attacks across Europe is growing ever denser: “The fragments of images dissolve into each other, merging in the media perception into a gigantic phantasm – the…

Global Warriors? German Soldiers and the Value of Innere Führung

Innere Führung commits the German soldier to respect for human rights, to fairness, tolerance and loyalty to democratic decisions. But given current conflicts and security-policy challenges, is Innere Führung still in step with the times, and…

Hybrid Warfare – Enemies at a Loss?

Hybrid warfare – this is a combination of covert and overt operations, of political and economic measures, of information operations and propaganda, of subversion and cyber attacks, and even military assistance and the covert deployment of…

Saving the Enemy? Military Medical Personnel under Fire

Lightning-fast decisions are required between life and death. Whom to treat first in light of limited resources – the fellow soldier, the civilian or the enemy? In the field, this question often leads to moral conflicts. Is it at all possible…

Cyberwar: The Digital Front - An Attack on Freedom and Democracy?

Countries and governments are increasingly using digital technologies in cyberspace, whether for communication, monitoring, espionage, combating crime and optimization of their military forces. The freedom of the Internet creates new spaces and…

Anonymous Killing by new Technologies? The Soldier between Conscience and Machine

Robots on the trigger – while that sounds like science fiction, the fact is that around sixty countries and armies are currently working on such lethal autonomous systems. They evaluate the available data in fractions of a second, enabling them…

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Issue 2014/01

The Centre of Ethical Education in the Armed Forces