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January 12 , 1978

NOTES ON MILITARY ETHICS
H.E. Eccles

Contradiction and paradox are inherent characteristics
of human affairs and therefore the resolution of ethical questions
will always be a highly personal and highly intuitive matter.

Nevertheless it is both appropriate and important to
study military ethics in a military educational institution.

As a servant of the state , the military professional should
see ethics both as public ethics , i.e. the ethics of the conduct
of public affairs , and private ethics , i.e. the standards that
govern one' s personal outlook and decisions about one' s own affairs.
This, of course, raises the question as to what, if any, difference
there is or there should be between the two.

In dealing with his "public affairs" the military
professional must understand and deal with concepts of Government
and Organization, Authority and Freedom, and Sovereignty. At the
same time he must deal with concepts of Law, Justice and discipline.
All the foregoing are closely involved with concepts and perceptions
of values.

In my opinion the knowledge of military theory and
principle is an important means of translating these abstractions
to the practical conduct of public affairs.

In this connection, the blending of political and military
factors in the modern era of limited war in an atmosphere of nuclear
"balance of terror" presents great difficulties in the blending (or
perhaps the separation) of "public affairs" ethics and "private"
or personal ethics and morality, i.e. political ethics versus
military ethics. Some of the issues arising in these areas are so