Moral Questions and Dilemmas
Early Times to Present Day Issues
Abstract
The purpose of this paper was to look at developments which have occurred in ethical behaviour in a nation’s armed forces. The paper begins with the Greeks and their concept of arête ‘manly virtue’, and concludes with reference to courses in ethics conducted in various military academies. In Australia, the Department of Defence and the RAN have played a role in developing codes of conduct for all ranks, from senior officer to junior recruit. The paper suggests that developing an understanding of ethics in a military/naval context should be addressed at four levels. Criteria should be identified for identifying relevant ethical behaviour; agreement should be reached about what constitutes ethical behaviour; programs should be developed at recruit and officer cadet level; and finally, curricula in military/naval ethics should be an integral part of the program in military training establishments.
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
