NEWPORT, R.I. - Dr. Martin Cook, Admiral James Bond Stockdale Professor of Professional Military Ethics at the Naval War College and co-editor of The Journal of Military Ethics, will present a lecture entitled "Military Ethics: The Limits of the Philosophical Approach," at the University of Oxford on March 1.
The presentation is part of a seminar series at the university co-sponsored by the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC) and the University of Oxford Program on the Changing Character of War (CCW). The seminars provide a framework within which practitioners and academics from varying fields explore different definitions of war and examine elements of change and continuity in the character of warfare.
Although many philosophers write on topics of just war and the ethical constrains in warfare, Cook will discuss that often these efforts suffer from knowledge and experience of the practical realities of the military profession. His lecture will also explain that military ethics is most useful when it is viewed as a type of professional ethics such as an analysis of ethical problems intended to aid thought practitioners of the profession.
Cook also serves as professor of Leadership and Ethics with the College of Operational and Strategic Leadership at NWC.
More information on Dr. Cook and his publications and articles on the topic of ethics in the military can be found by clicking here
to go to his faculty web page.
By David Reese, Naval War College Public Affairs