Off the shelf

Joint Force Quarterly, July, 2009 by R.E. Henstrand

Given the increasing incidence of insurgency, terrorism, piracy, and other threats from nonstate actors across the globe, a wealth of scholarly investigation and analysis into the tradition of just war and the use of military force is being produced. Here are several of the more recent volumes that military and interagency leaders should find useful.

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A Moral Military: Revised and

Expanded Edition, with a New

Chapter on Torture

by Sidney Axinn

Philadelphia: Temple University

Press, 2009

256 pp. $74.50

ISBN: 978-1-59213-957-6

Sidney Axinn has updated and expanded the original 1990 version of his classic on morality in military activity. In a readable style, Axinn covers the gamut of ethical and moral problems associated with the military and conduct of war, ranging from whether a Soldier should ever disobey an order, to the use of torture, nuclear weapons, and restrictions on how to fight. One of the book's many strengths is its organization into easily consumed chapters and sections that can be quickly referenced with the detailed table of contents or index.

A Moral Military is a veritable handbook on the moral conduct of war that will help leaders formulate acceptable plans and make principled decisions in this new era of fighting terrorists and irregular conflicts. It should be mandatory reading for military leaders, national security strategists, and policymakers.

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Waging Humanitarian War:

The Ethics, Law, and Politics of

Humanitarian Intervention

by Eric A. Heinze

Albany: State University of New

York Press, 2009

224 pp. $65.00

ISBN: 978-0-7914-7695-6

In recent decades, the U.S. military has participated in United Nations, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and unilateral peace and humanitarian assistance operations. Why? When should the United States initiate such operations? When are we morally compelled to do so? Does U.S. support of an international effort to relieve suffering or reinstate peace or stability matter? What are the effects of such operations? Eric Heinze explores these and other tough questions in this examination of the ethical, legal, and political dimensions of military intervention for humanitarian reasons. Heinze uses the NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1999, 2003 invasion of Iraq, and crisis in Darfur as case studies. He acknowledges that waging humanitarian war is always a risky proposition and one that is not likely to solve underlying problems such as ethnic hatred, poverty, or poor governance. Heinze concludes that the use of the military element of national power may still be mandated, requested, or otherwise required, but should only be undertaken when it will not, in the long run, make the situation worse.

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Ethics and International

Affairs: A Reader, Third Edition

Edited by Joel H. Rosenthal and

Christian Barry

Washington, DC: Georgetown

University Press, 2009

368 pp. $34.95

ISBN: 978-1-58901-272-1

This volume, written for use in the study of international relations, ethics, foreign policy, and related fields, offers an entry-level set of readings offering insights into the debates surrounding these issues. The book is organized into four parts: conflict and resolution; grounds for intervention; governance, law, and membership; and global economic justice. To meet their objective of providing "normative, empirical discussions and studies ... of international issues ... uppermost in reader's minds," the editors have compiled essays on topics of immediate importance including preventive war, humanitarian intervention, legitimacy of global governance institutions, and international organizations. The take-away for military leaders, strategists, and policymakers is a basic indoctrination on how moral theory can inform strategies and policy choices.

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Renegotiation of the Just War

Tradition and the Right to War

in the Twenty-First Century

by Cian O'Driscoll

New York: Palgrave MacMillan,

2008

244 pp. $79.95

ISBN: 978-0-230-60583-1

Using the invasion of Iraq as context for a broad discussion of the just war theory and tradition, Cian O'Driscoll concludes that "the tradition may be fairly depicted as moving toward a broader jus ad bellum than was typical throughout the latter half of the twentieth century." O'Driscoll recognizes that the 21st-century spectrum of conflict has expanded to include unilateral and coalition use of force against nonstate actors and in a broader set of situations, such as humanitarian relief. He compares contemporary approaches to topics such as anticipatory war, punitive war, and humanitarian intervention with traditional jus ad bellum thinking. O'Driscoll provides a thorough and serious examination of such changes in the just war tradition, and this book will help commanders, planners, strategists, and policymakers to more critically examine contingency planning and war plans in the 21st century.

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Killing Civilians: Method,

Madness, and Morality in War

by Hugo Slim

New York: Columbia University