Cultural dissonance: ethical considerations from Afghanistan

Abstract

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) includes ethical decision-making as part of its professional development program. However, the limitations of the CAF professional development program in ethical decision-making become evident when CAF members must deal with coalition members whose ethical norms differ significantly from those of the CAF. A number of recent cases in the Afghanistan mission highlight these limitations. This article examines the ethical dilemmas faced by senior Canadian decision-makers in one such case. When confronted with numerous reports, starting as early as 2005, by members of the CAF to the chain of command of incidents of sexual assault of boys by Afghan forces, senior decision-makers were faced with choices that could fall within a continuum of actions. At one end of the continuum was to take immediate and forceful action based on Canadian values. At the other end was to take no action since the attitude of most coalition partners was to do nothing because they accepted that this practice had been “common” in Afghanistan’s culture. The article discusses the actions of senior Canadian decision-makers in this case and focuses on whether or not the CAF professional development program adequately prepared them for their decision-making role in this type of ethical dilemma.