Ground Truth: The Moral Component in Contemporary British Warfare

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Frank Ledwidge (University of Portsmouth, UK) Helen Parr (University of Keele, UK)

Ground Truth

The Moral Component in Contemporary British Warfare

Frank Ledwidge (University of Portsmouth, UK), Helen Parr (University of Keele, UK), Aaron Edwards (Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, UK) , Aaron Edwards (Royal Military Academy Sandhurst UK)

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English

Bloomsbury Academic
11 July 2024

Military history; Theory of warfare & military science

Series: Studies in Contemporary Warfare

After twenty years of almost unbroken wars of choice, the ethical deficiencies in the operational conduct of war by Western armed forces have largely been ignored by scholarly critique. This volume addresses these deficiencies, featuring analysis by some of the UK’s leading academics and military veterans working in the fields of military ethics and contemporary conflict.

Compiled in honour of Colonel David Benest OBE, a soldier-scholar who believed that ethics should be central to an effective military education, the book focuses on problems ranging from the practicalities of how to conduct a counterinsurgency campaign in one of the most challenging combat zones in the world to the failure to account properly for defeat during military conflicts. This important volume explores critical questions perennially raised about the role of the military in a democratic society and the extent to which its ideals are compromised in fighting wars of choice.

Edited by: Frank Ledwidge (University of Portsmouth UK), Helen Parr (University of Keele, UK), Aaron Edwards (Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, UK), Aaron Edwards (Royal Military Academy Sandhurst UK)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781350335523
ISBN 10: 1350335525
Series: Studies in Contemporary Warfare
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 11 July 2024
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Foreword - Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman Introduction - Frank Ledwidge Part One: David Benest’s legacy Chapter 1: ‘Not the British way of doing business’: Atrocities in military operations and how to avoid them - Aaron Edwards Chapter 2: The military virtues: David Benest and David Fisher on when soldiers turn bad - Simon Anglim Chapter 3: Legal accountability at the tactical level and the Overseas Operations Act - Nicholas Mercer Part Two: Legal and moral accountability Chapter 4: The Iraq war crimes allegations and the investigative conundrum - Andrew Williams Chapter 5: From forgetting to institutional failure: The army as a non-learning organization - Matthew Ford Chapter 6: Accountability, responsibility and culpability: Are British senior officers truly ‘professional’? - Frank Ledwidge Part Three: Combat realities Chapter 7: The operational design for Nad-e-Ali South, Afghanistan, 2011 - Oliver Lee Chapter 8: Killing over winning: How fluid ethics turned success into failure for Britain’s special forces - Chris Green Chapter 9: Must liberal democracies compromise their values in order to defeat insurgencies? - Louise Jones Part Four: Myths, stories and memory Chapter 10: The lonely death of Highlander Scott McLaren - Edward Burke Chapter 11: Military myths - John Wilson Chapter 12: Remembering the British soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan - Helen Parr Bibliography Authors’ biographies Index

Frank Ledwidge is a Senior Lecturer in Strategy and Law at the University of Portsmouth, UK. He is the author of several books, including the best-selling Losing Small Wars (2011), which was selected as a 'Book of the Year' by The Times. Aaron Edwards is a Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, UK. He is the author of numerous books including Strategy in War and Peace: A Critical Introduction (2017) and War: A Beginner’s Guide (2016). Helen Parr is Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Keele, UK. She is the author of Our Boys: The Story of a Paratrooper (2018) which won the Templer Medal Book Prize, the Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History, the Longman-History Today Book Prize and was Longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing.

Reviews for Ground Truth: The Moral Component in Contemporary British Warfare

At a time when alleged moral and legal transgressions by the British Armed Forces are being highlighted in the press and public conscience, this volume explores how and why things can go wrong. It is also an excellent reminder of the many principled people who strive in the most difficult of circumstances to do the right thing. * Professor David Whetham, Director of the Centre for Military Ethics, King’s College London, UK * I readily recommend this book of essays, in memory of David Benest and the moral principles he stood for, to the profession of arms and those who study them and their use. The essays pose many questions – questions that should be considered and answered before and during any endeavour of force of arms and frequently are not.’ * General Sir Rupert Smith KCB DSO OBE QGM *