Ethical Education of the Military: NATO Experience and Ukrainian Practice

Abstract

The article provides a comparative analysis of the scientific and theoretical approaches to the ethical component of a professional military education in the NATO countries and Ukraine. The requirements of modern standards and criteria of military professionalism have been stated. Being based on the results of the analysis, the task to form and develop some basic moral values and qualities of the officers in the National Guard of Ukraine is offered for a project implementation in the educational process in the National Academy of the National Guard. The proposed project is aimed at different categories of learners: first-year cadets, Academy graduates (Junior Officers) and Intermediate Officers doing the course for the Master’s Degree in the National Academy of the National Guard of Ukraine. It can create the methodological basis for the ethical education in the Security and Defense higher educational establishments of Ukraine. The methodology of the project is based on the developments of modern home philosophy of education, including the military one, on humanization and humanitarization of a military education; on western and home socio-philosophical and military-sociological views of the army’s place and role in today's ‘risk society’, on the peculiarities of the interaction between civil and military structures correspondingly, on the moral requirements for the military, first of all officers, and on the principles contained in Generic Officer Professional Military Education (PME) Reference Curriculum (RC), for NATO and partners.