Abstract
This paper explores the relationship between the social, the ethical and the political in translation activity, based on military linguists’ accounts of their work in the context of the “war on terror”. In particular, it examines the social conditions, drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and field, that contributed to the construction of an “ethics of the translator” in the context of Guantánamo and Iraq. The paper also explores a number of relevant philosophical theorizations of human rights, politics and the law to explore the complex nature of the ethical. It argues for a translation ethics that is not guided by professional codes of ethics based on the notion of impartiality but that is instead informed by the nature of the ethical encounter itself – where “the right thing to do” cannot be calculated or predetermined, but can only ever be decided in the event itself.
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