Global Sovereignty and Moral Degradation of War

Authors

  • Boris N. Kashnikov National Research University “Higher School of Economics”, 20, Myasnitskay str., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21146/0042-8744-2020-2-14-25

Keywords:

war, justice, sovereignty, just war theory, motives of war, military ethics, goals of war, peace.

Abstract

The ongoing current transformation of war is different from the transformations of the past not only in scope, but also in its meaning and profoundness. This transformation is comparable only to the profound transformation, which was
taking place at the dawn of Modernity and led to the emergence of the sovereign states. The contemporary transformation is triggered by the tectonic shift in the forms of political sovereignty, the emergence of the global sovereign
authority. The most important change, related to this transformation is the change in the moral content and meaning of war. The author of this article provides ethical description and evaluation of this change. This goal is accomplished through the normative characteristic of motives, means, goals and meanings of war. The ethical analysis of the major characteristics of war makes it possible to claim that the ongoing moral degradation of war is taking place. This
degradation derives not only from the predominantly unreasonable motives of the contemporary war, the lack of proper honor and courage, but also from the very impossibility of victory in the proper sense of the term in the new war. War
becomes absolute and permanent. We need some new conceptual tools to grasp the new moral reality of war, since the dominant just war theory is hardly of any use in this regard.

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Published

2020-02-28

Issue

Section

Philosophy and Society

How to Cite

[1]
2020. Global Sovereignty and Moral Degradation of War. Voprosy Filosofii. 2 (Feb. 2020), 14–25. DOI:https://doi.org/10.21146/0042-8744-2020-2-14-25.