The US military can exempt from service those who are religiously or morally opposed to violence. But conscientious objector status won't help soldiers who disagree with specific lawful orders.
Members of the military wearing U.S. Army Special Forces insignia block protesters near Lafayette Park and the White House on June 3, 2020.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
There is a long line of military heroes who had the moral courage not to follow immoral orders. In the days ahead, some may have to consider what exactly their oath to the Constitution requires.
NYPD officers turning their backs on New York mayor Bill de Blasio after he remarked on police violence, Jan. 4, 2015.
AP Photo/John Minchillo,
Maybe you think neuroscience has a peaceable history of benign efforts to improve lives and enhance human capacities. But its origins and development tell a different story – with ethical implications.
Outer space should be used for peace not war.
Shutterstock/Rustam Zagidullin
The rules on armed conflict on Earth are a major source of restraint on military operations. But the rules on the use of weapons in outer space are far from clear. We need to change that.
Can a Czech soldier justify assassinating a Nazi leader when he knows that it could lead to thousands of innocent citizens being murdered in revenge? If so, how?
Tough decisions are made from distant control rooms.
Bleecker Street Media
The moral and ethical dilemmas of future warfare are depicted in this tight British thriller. But what will happen when humans become more removed from the weapons of war?
Psychologists aren’t supposed to be involved in torture. In this 2009 file photo a sign marks a closed-off area at Camp Justice, the location of the US Military Commissions court for war crimes, at the US Naval Base, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Witness-Guantanamo/Reuters/Brennan Linsley/Pool/Files
Why hasn’t the American Psychological Association prohibited members from participating in interrogations? And what are future psychologists learning about military medical ethics?
A MQ-9 Reaper Drone has an operational cost one-fifth of the F35 Joint Strike Fighter. So should drones replace soldiers in military warfare?
US Air Force
Cost is largely absent in the key debates around the use of unmanned drones in war, even though drones are a cost-effective way of achieving national security objectives. Many of the common objections…
US army ‘deserter’ Bowe Bergdahl had deep and abiding questions about the justice of the cause he signed up for.
EPA/IntelCenter
The public debate around the recent prisoner swap that saw US Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl returned from five years’ imprisonment in Afghanistan in exchange for five senior Taliban leaders has had two main…