53. Dr Deane-Peter Baker: State Ethics vs Soldier Morality

Today, I spoke with Dr Deane-Peter Baker, a military ethicist, who is an Associate Professor of International and Political Studies in the School of Humanities and Social Science at UNSW Canberra, where he also is co-Convenor of the UNSW Canberra Future Operations Research Group.

Deane’s work focuses mainly on the ethics of armed conflict. His current area of focus is on ethics and special operations, and he is a regular consultant to Australia’s Special Operations Command as well as the Australian Defence Force more broadly.

He joins me to today to discuss one of his recently published books, Morality and Ethics at War: Bridging the Gaps Between the Soldier and the State. Some of the topics we discussed are:

• Deane’s entry into the field of military ethics
• Difference between ethics and morality
• Idea of individual freedom
• Inculcating moral frameworks
• Distinction between jus ad bellum and jus in bello
• ‘Disciplined disobedience’
• Understanding ‘ethics inhibitors’ in a military context
• Training with ethics in mind
• Moral drift and moral injury
• The ‘Guardian ethos’
• Interests vs values argument
• ‘Ethical triangulation’

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