Analysis of Professional Integrity and Disobedience in the Military

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Main claim The paper ‘Professional Integrity and Disobedience in the Military’ by Jessica Wolfendale argues that if the military’s primary function is to protect the nation and serve moral good, then the military, at both institutional and individual level, should have, not only the permission, but the duty to disobey direct orders from the state to go to war if these orders conflict with the principles of jus ad bellum. Wolfendale further argues that there is a discrepancy between the military’s professional integrity and the generally accepted fact that the military should ultimately obey the state. The inconsistency lies in the fact that the guidelines of the professional integrity in this case would have prohibited the execution of many orders given by states through the years, and since there are few to none accounts of the military disobeying state orders. Opposing point of view The generally accepted opinion is, that the military professionals cannot be held accountable for the morality of an order issued by the state. It is widely recognised that the military and the soldiers individually are part of a community that would demand of them to put their personal and professional values aside to serve the moral good. It is not believed to be the responsibility of the military to assess whether or not a war is just – certainly not down to the individual soldier. Wolfendale argues that each soldier has a duty to familiarise his/herself with the principles of just war theory to be able to assess themselves, whether they are partaking in a just war. Arguments Wolfendale supports her claim by first identifying the military as a profession, which in itself demands professional integrity, i.e. a way of determining the best way to conduct the work as a soldier and where the moral limits to that service is – when the soldier should stop fighting the war. She

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