The Moral Dilemmas Of Fighting Terrorism And Guerrilla Groups

The Moral Dilemmas of Fighting Terrorism and Guerrilla Groups discusses the most important ethical dilemmas associated with the fight against terrorist organizations and guerilla groups by providing readers with a rigorous, yet accessible analysis of how these forms of violence can be justified and how they ought to be fought by entities targeted by groups resorting to these strategies. It will be valuable to anyone interested in understanding the main ethical questions associated with these forms of political violence and the way they can be addressed. After providing conceptual clarifications that will allow the reader to distinguish between terrorism and guerrilla warfare, it explains and discusses what the criteria are that can justify resorting to lethal violence on the part of the latter group as well as the criteria that can determine the identity of those who can legitimately be targeted by these groups. The book analyzes when terrorists ought to be targeted and how this can be done, focusing on the inherent problems associated with the solutions that are normally used against state actors in order to prevent attacks on their part, namely what can be coined as “non-violent alternatives to war”, such as economic or diplomatic sanctions, arm embargoes and non-violent resistance and, on the other hand, preemptive attacks.

Fighting Terror analyses the ethical dilemmas that confront everyone in the war on terror. Arguing that this is as much a war of ideas as it is a military struggle, Alex Bellamy argues that fighting morally is essential in distancing the terrorized from the terrorists. The book starts by setting out the case for thinking ethically about the war on terror and demonstrates the immorality of terrorism. Covering everything from torture to bombing, assassination to post-war reconstruction, Bellamy uses a series of fascinating case studies to examine how morally terror is being fought across the world. Though, he claims, there is a good case for combating terrorism, the way this is being done is ethically deeply troubling. Fighting Terror makes a powerful and controversial argument for bringing ethics and morality back in to the way we think about terrorism.

A practical guide for policy makers, military officers, students, and anyone else interested in asymmetric conflicts.

Looking back at the "War on Terror" and its policies, actions, and the violence that followed, this book analyzes the resulting changes in international power structures and the relationship between citizens and their representatives. It defines our shortcomings in opposing this type of violence by demonstrating how the notion of legitimate violence has been broadened. The impact of the "War on Terror" on the public view of Liberalism is explored, as well as its effects on the role of state authorities in our lives. Thus, this book names the lessons we ought to learn from the actions taken against terrorist organizations.

This book explores the forms of fear that are becoming more visible in liberal democracies and how they now tend to condition our existences in a way that is detrimental to our personal freedom. The author explores how the conception of human existence that now dominates in liberal societies and that places the highest value on the preservation of life at all cost plays a significant role in this regard. He explores the origins of this form of biopolitics that has emerged after the end of the Cold War and shows how it has dramatically changed our relationship with the state and also explains how this new dynamic has been favorable to the imposition of disproportional restrictions on our individual freedom. The Covid-19 pandemic has indeed shown that when the fear of dying ends up taking precedence over any other considerations, individuals and societies are led on an illiberal path that can only contribute to the gradual erosion of their liberties and on the development and acceptance of a new type of governance that justifies the imposition of liberticidal measures. This book will appeal to scholars and students of political theory and comparative democracy, civil rights advocates and media professionals interested in questions related to liberalism and its post-Cold War evolution.

The Ethics of Insurgency explains how guerrillas who pursue national self-determination may justly utilize many unlawful practices of war.

When we take a look back at the way Western states have fought terrorist organizations in the last 20 years, it is difficult not to think that these alternatives to war might have been more ethical than the decisions to invade Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and in 2003. These cases speak for themselves as they have both led to the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, which is highly paradoxical in light of the logic that supported these interventions. There is a need to think of alternatives to war that will imply the legitimization of proactive sets of measures that would allow states to effectively prevent terrorist attacks through the use of kinetic force in a limited extent as a way to avoid the terrible and unpredictable effects of wars. Violent Alternatives to War: Justifying Actions Against Contemporary Terrorism engages in a moral discussion of the challenges associated with violent alternatives to war when confronting terrorism and suggests a comprehensive approach to how this form of violence can be legitimized and how it ought to be used against this contemporary threat.

This Companion provides scholars and graduates, serving and retired military professionals, members of the diplomatic and policy communities concerned with security affairs and legal professionals who deal with military law and with international law on armed conflicts, with a comprehensive and authoritative state-of-the-art review of current research in the area of military ethics. Topics in this volume reflect both perennial and pressing contemporary issues in the ethics of the use of military force and are written by established professionals and respected commentators. Subjects are organized by three major perspectives on the use of military force: the decision whether to use military force in a given context, the matter of right conduct in the use of such force, and ethical responsibilities beyond the end of an armed conflict. Treatment of issues in each of these sections takes account of both present-day moral challenges and new approaches to these and the historical tradition of just war. Military ethics, as it has developed, has been a particularly Western concern and this volume reflects that reality. However, in a globalized world, awareness of similarities and differences between Western approaches and those of other major cultures is essential. For this reason the volume concludes with chapters on ethics and war in the Islamic, Chinese, and Indian traditions, with the aim of integrating reflection on these approaches into the broad consideration of military ethics provided by this volume.