The Morality of Militarization

Abstract

Ethics, Security, and The War Machine offers a timely and sophisticated critique of the military-industrial paradigm. Dobos contends that after weighing the benefits of having a military against its true costs—more numerous and harmful than commonly assumed—one finds powerful considerations in favor of demilitarization. This conclusion arises through an examination of jus ante bellum, the justice of preparing for war. War is costly, but so is constant preparation for it. These costs fall into three main categories: harm to soldiers, harm to society, and an increased likelihood of harmful war. First, military conditioning desensitizes soldiers to violence, causing psychological, physical, and moral harm (pp. 14–39). As Dobos notes, “there is something uniquely troubling about the profession of arms” (p. 39), mainly because military conditioning intends to abrade virtue; it is morally injurious. Many, however, hold the contrasting view that military service promotes virtue. Second, militarization carries costs to society. Although a military may deter foreign aggression, it also increases the risk of inward-facing violence, coups d’état and resultant malevolent dictatorships (pp. 40–61). This risk results from a “civil-military gap,” an absence of shared values. Just as a foreign invader may not respect a society's communal self-definition (i.e., its free expression of values and political will), so too the significant ideological, experiential, and cultural (i.e., values, ideologies, and attitudes) gaps between a society and its military mean that coups will likely result in oppressive regimes. Militaries are therefore inherently dangerous, even toward those they serve. Moreover, corrosive military values—such as forcefulness, hierarchy, toughness, a faith in force, and adversarial presumptions (or delusions)—can erode the institutions and norms designed to protect and promote the well-being of citizens (pp. 104–130). These include law enforcement (i.e., the militarization of equipment and weapons, tactics, and culture), business (i.e., the adoption of a war mentality and the relaxation of moral norms), and education (i.e., militarized pedagogies and power structures). Dobos argues that this moral erosion causes inefficiencies in these institutions. I think we can go further; the “seep” of military processes and values into civilian life is outright harmful.