Security Ethics and the Modern Military: The Case of the Israel Defense Forces

Abstract

The rise to the fore of realist ontologies in international relations has meant that ethical issues have been associated more with evaluation than explanation. Yet ignoring the constitutive role of morality and ethics in structuring security policy choices leaves us without a complete understanding of the causes and consequences of international behavior. Accordingly, this article seeks to transplant the role of ethics from the realm of evaluative to empirical theory by introducing the idea of a security ethic, referring to the state’s—and by extension the military’s—normative attitudes toward the use of organized violence, including under what circumstances it is ethically permissible to use force at all, and the manner in which force can be justly employed in a given military operation. The article develops this framework by reference to the historical security outlook of the Israel Defense Forces.