War Crimes and the Asymmetry Myth. Issue 3 (2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Coady, C. A. J.
• Is Part Of: Ethics & international affairs. Volume 35:Issue 3(2021)
• Page Start: 381
• Page End: 394
• Publication Date: 2021
• Subjects: war crimes -- asymmetry myth -- glamorization -- costs -- moral injury -- revelations -- inquiries -- nationalism -- conscientious resistance; International relations -- Moral and ethical aspects -- Periodicals; 172.405
• DOI: 10.1017/S0892679421000411
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0892-6794

Abstract

Abstract: The "asymmetry myth" is that war crimes are committed by one's enemies but never, or hardly ever, by one's own combatants. The myth involves not only a common failure to acknowledge our own actual war crimes but also inadequate reactions when we are forced to recognize them. It contributes to the high likelihood that wars, just or unjust in their causes, will have a high moral cost. This cost, moreover, is a matter needing consideration in the jus ante bellum circumstances of preparedness for war as well as of conduct within it. As part of the symposium on Ned Dobos's book, Ethics, Security, and the War-Machine, I will argue that the strength of the asymmetry myth is sustained by certain forms of romantic nationalism linked to the glamorization of military endeavor.