International Society for Military Ethics 2009 Symposium

ISME San Diego: 29-30 January 2009 | CFP: 19 September 2008

Those of you with an interest in the morality of war (of that are looking for an excuse to visit San Diego in January) might be interested in giving a talk at the ISME’s 2009 Symposium. I’ve pasted their call for papers below; as you can see, the conference themes are broad enough that even those that do not typically write on war may find it a congenial place to present some of their work. I really enjoyed last year’s symposium - the participants included not only philosophers but also political scientists, legal scholars, historians and serving and retired military officers of varying ranks (many of whom had, or were working toward, advanced degrees in philosophy or political science). The non-philosophers’ knowledge of other domains (e.g. the law of armed conflict or the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice), and especially the military personnel’s experience in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and elsewhere, more than compensates for the frustration that sometimes results from sharing one’s philosophical work with those not trained in philosophy.

I particularly want to encourage those that participated in or followed the discussion of David Estlund’s book on democratic authority to submit papers on the (possible) tensions between the morality and legality of war - not least because I’m partly to blame for the conference adopting this theme. As some of you probably know, Estlund has already written on this topic; see “On Following Orders in an Unjust War,” Journal of Political Philosophy 15:2 (June 2007).

ISME 09

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM FOR MILITARY ETHICS

(formerly the JOINT SERVICES CONFERENCE ON PROFESSIONAL ETHICS)

January 29-30, 2009

San Diego, CA

ISME Members: Thanks to everyone who made our transition to San Diego a smooth one. Last year’s conference was an enormous success, and this year’s promises more of the same. A registration form will be sent later; it will include details concerning lodging, registration fee, etc. You can expect the final program to be circulated in early January 2009.

As we did last year, we will start with a plenary session on a primary topic. Subsequent breakout sessions will address the primary theme as well as other issues of interest for military ethics.

The theme for the opening plenary session is Morality versus Legality. Papers might involve issues such as:

• Do the moral constraints on both going to war and the conduct of war differ significantly from both domestic and international legal constraints?
• How should political leaders, military personnel, and the average citizen respond to a divergence of legal constraints from moral constraints?
• Should military personnel receive an education in the morality of war if this may render them aware that conformity to the laws of war may still involve morally unjustifiable conduct?
• Are states morally bound to uphold mutual defense treaties?
• Are mutual defense treaties like promises?
• Can states be bound by promises?

For subsequent sessions, we will address After War (again, the primary theme may also take up sessions other than the first plenary). Papers on this theme might address issues such as:

• The ethics of reconstruction.
• Reparations.
• Tribunals.
• Forgiveness and reconciliation.

We will accept panel proposals for ISME 2009. The general format will require each panel member to give a short –5 minute — talk; the primary purpose of the panel will be to stimulate plenary discussion.

Each year we also welcome papers on any issues of importance to the profession of arms: This year we are particularly interested in philosophical essays concerning the following: Do character development programs really work?

General submission guidelines. Please note the following guidance on submission deadlines. Proposals are due 19 September 2008. Full working drafts of papers will be favored over one-page proposals. Proposals or papers MUST contain the author’s name, institution, and contact information on the first page; the contact information must include email address, command or institutional affiliation, and telephone number. Once you are notified that your proposal or draft has been accepted, you must submit your full paper by 2 January 2009. Finally, we reserve the right to reject full papers that do not live up to the promise of their proposals; in the very unlikely chance that such would happen, we expect to be able to notify the authors by 12 January 2009.

If you would like to make a presentation at the conference, please submit a paper, a draft, an outline, or a proposal to Dr. George Lucas at the United States Naval Academy by 19 September 2008. Submit your proposal as a word processor file in MS Word format attached to an e-mail to Dr. Lucas. Document file name should be author’s first and last name and brief paper title: e.g., ‘John Smith: States, Promises and Treaties.’ We expect to be able to notify authors of presentations selected by approximately 10 October 2008. Prior to the conference, the papers will be published on the ISME Web Page, http://www.usafa.edu/isme/. Disclaimer: ISME and the program chair assume no responsibility for papers that are misdirected, lost in transmission, or otherwise not received and acknowledged. Acknowledgement is by e-mail only.

In order to provide adequate time for discussion of presentations, each presenter will be limited to 15 minutes. Please bear this time limit in mind as you craft your papers.

Please consider submitting a proposal. The vitality exhibited by ISME for nearly thirty years comes entirely from member participation.