LEWE · The Law and Ethics of War's Ending
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-10-19 → 2023-10-18
- EU contribution
- €224,934
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
The Law and Ethics of War's Ending
My project developed a moral and legal framework for ending wars. Developing a moral and legal framework for ending wars is of the utmost practical importance, as is evidenced by the magnitude of the slaughter in Ukraine. This war was described by the UN as the most rapidly developing humanitarian crisis since World War II. Furthermore, the absence of an ethics of conflict termination remains a major philosophical omission, one that hinders the civic polity’s ability to judge whether a conflict is or should be over. This omission vitiates a founding tenet of democracy: civilian control of the military. The lack of clear ideas about what constitutes legitimate goals in war and what constitutes victory or defeat makes it far too easy for military and political leaders to paint a misleading picture, and it makes it harder for voters to judge whether continuing a war is morally justified. I explored the idea that there need not be a particular point at which a just war must be brought to an end. Methodologically, I used the tools of analytic philosophy, mathematical modeling, and normative economics in order to formalize and refine moral and legal claims. By combining innovative formal and mathematical methods with rigorous philosophical analysis, and by proposing legal principles responsive to the relevant moral and practical considerations, my research offers the first moral and legal theory of conflict termination.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The project LEWE will seek to develop a moral and legal framework within just war theory for ending wars, and in particular, asymmetric conflicts (for example between states and non-state actors). Just war theory has given little attention to these forms of conflict, or indeed how and when they should end.Currently, no moral theory of conflict termination yet exists. The proposed research is intended to offer such a theory. The first aim of the research will be to develop an account of legitimate goals in asymmetric conflicts, which must be considered in necessity, proportionality, and achievability determinations—just war theory’s crucial constraints on war-making. The research will then as a second aim develop criteria to evaluate whether military goals in asymmetric war are necessary, proportionate, and achievable. It will explore the idea that, in asymmetric wars, there need not be a particular point at which a state of hostilities immediately gives way to cease-fire or armistice. Instead it may be possible to identify an interval during which asymmetric wars should be brought to an end, by carefully applying the necessity, proportionality, and probability of success constraints to the goals of war. After deriving the termination framework, the research will assess how its recommendations can be incorporated into international law. This action has the potential to create a broader ethics of peacemaking, distinct from military standards and objectives, that would comprehend morally acceptable goals. Altogether, the current proposal combines the complementary strengths of the researcher and the host to establish the building blocks for a new moral and legal theory of ending asymmetric conflicts, the most prevalent form of war.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD · OxfordCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union