Ground Truth
The Moral Component in Contemporary British Warfare
Published on 11. July 2024
Book
Hardback
224 pages
978-1-350-33552-3 (ISBN)
Description
Shortlisted for The Society for Army Historical Research's 2024 Templer Medal for best first book.
After twenty years of almost unbroken wars of choice, the ethical deficiencies in the operational conduct of war by Western armed forces have largely been ignored by scholarly critique. This volume addresses these deficiencies, featuring analysis by some of the UK's leading academics and military veterans working in the fields of military ethics and contemporary conflict.
Compiled in honour of Colonel David Benest OBE, a soldier-scholar who believed that ethics should be central to an effective military education, the book focuses on problems ranging from the practicalities of how to conduct a counterinsurgency campaign in one of the most challenging combat zones in the world to the failure to account properly for defeat during military conflicts. This important volume explores critical questions perennially raised about the role of the military in a democratic society and the extent to which its ideals are compromised in fighting wars of choice.
After twenty years of almost unbroken wars of choice, the ethical deficiencies in the operational conduct of war by Western armed forces have largely been ignored by scholarly critique. This volume addresses these deficiencies, featuring analysis by some of the UK's leading academics and military veterans working in the fields of military ethics and contemporary conflict.
Compiled in honour of Colonel David Benest OBE, a soldier-scholar who believed that ethics should be central to an effective military education, the book focuses on problems ranging from the practicalities of how to conduct a counterinsurgency campaign in one of the most challenging combat zones in the world to the failure to account properly for defeat during military conflicts. This important volume explores critical questions perennially raised about the role of the military in a democratic society and the extent to which its ideals are compromised in fighting wars of choice.
Reviews / Votes
At a time when alleged moral and legal transgressions by the British Armed Forces are being highlighted in the press and public conscience, this volume explores how and why things can go wrong. It is also an excellent reminder of the many principled people who strive in the most difficult of circumstances to do the right thing. * Professor David Whetham, Director of the Centre for Military Ethics, King's College London, UK * I readily recommend this book of essays, in memory of David Benest and the moral principles he stood for, to the profession of arms and those who study them and their use. The essays pose many questions - questions that should be considered and answered before and during any endeavour of force of arms and frequently are not.' * General Sir Rupert Smith KCB DSO OBE QGM *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
496 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-33552-3 (9781350335523)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Frank Ledwidge is a Senior Lecturer in Strategy and Law at the University of Portsmouth, UK. He is the author of several books, including the best-selling Losing Small Wars (2011), which was selected as a 'Book of the Year' by The Times.
Aaron Edwards is a Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, UK. He is the author of numerous books including Strategy in War and Peace: A Critical Introduction (2017) and War: A Beginner's Guide (2016).
Helen Parr is Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Keele, UK. She is the author of Our Boys: The Story of a Paratrooper (2018) which won the Templer Medal Book Prize, the Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History, the Longman-History Today Book Prize and was Longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing.
Aaron Edwards is a Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, UK. He is the author of numerous books including Strategy in War and Peace: A Critical Introduction (2017) and War: A Beginner's Guide (2016).
Helen Parr is Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Keele, UK. She is the author of Our Boys: The Story of a Paratrooper (2018) which won the Templer Medal Book Prize, the Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History, the Longman-History Today Book Prize and was Longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing.
Content
Foreword - Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman
Introduction - Frank Ledwidge
Part One: David Benest's legacy
Chapter 1: 'Not the British way of doing business': Atrocities in military operations and how to avoid them - Aaron Edwards
Chapter 2: The military virtues: David Benest and David Fisher on when soldiers turn bad - Simon Anglim
Chapter 3: Legal accountability at the tactical level and the Overseas Operations Act - Nicholas Mercer
Part Two: Legal and moral accountability
Chapter 4: The Iraq war crimes allegations and the investigative conundrum - Andrew Williams
Chapter 5: From forgetting to institutional failure: The army as a non-learning organization - Matthew Ford
Chapter 6: Accountability, responsibility and culpability: Are British senior officers truly 'professional'? - Frank Ledwidge
Part Three: Combat realities
Chapter 7: The operational design for Nad-e-Ali South, Afghanistan, 2011 - Oliver Lee
Chapter 8: Killing over winning: How fluid ethics turned success into failure for Britain's special forces - Chris Green
Chapter 9: Must liberal democracies compromise their values in order to defeat insurgencies? - Louise Jones
Part Four: Myths, stories and memory
Chapter 10: The lonely death of Highlander Scott McLaren - Edward Burke
Chapter 11: Military myths - John Wilson
Chapter 12: Remembering the British soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan - Helen Parr
Bibliography
Authors' biographies
Index
Introduction - Frank Ledwidge
Part One: David Benest's legacy
Chapter 1: 'Not the British way of doing business': Atrocities in military operations and how to avoid them - Aaron Edwards
Chapter 2: The military virtues: David Benest and David Fisher on when soldiers turn bad - Simon Anglim
Chapter 3: Legal accountability at the tactical level and the Overseas Operations Act - Nicholas Mercer
Part Two: Legal and moral accountability
Chapter 4: The Iraq war crimes allegations and the investigative conundrum - Andrew Williams
Chapter 5: From forgetting to institutional failure: The army as a non-learning organization - Matthew Ford
Chapter 6: Accountability, responsibility and culpability: Are British senior officers truly 'professional'? - Frank Ledwidge
Part Three: Combat realities
Chapter 7: The operational design for Nad-e-Ali South, Afghanistan, 2011 - Oliver Lee
Chapter 8: Killing over winning: How fluid ethics turned success into failure for Britain's special forces - Chris Green
Chapter 9: Must liberal democracies compromise their values in order to defeat insurgencies? - Louise Jones
Part Four: Myths, stories and memory
Chapter 10: The lonely death of Highlander Scott McLaren - Edward Burke
Chapter 11: Military myths - John Wilson
Chapter 12: Remembering the British soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan - Helen Parr
Bibliography
Authors' biographies
Index