Virtues and rules in war: military ethics and technologies of radical risk-reduction

On a contentious but still widely held view of the ethics of war, belligerents’ mutual imposition of risk licenses the harm they attempt to inflict upon each other. When this reciprocity of risk imposition is lost—when combatants of one side are able to inflict harm without exposing themselves to it—the moral balance is disrupted. Technologies that radically reduce risk, such as UAVs (drones) or autonomous weapon systems, are particularly challenging in this respect. Scholars have suggested that these technologies of radical risk reduction are so morally disruptive that the ethics of war should fundamentally shift from virtue-based towards rule-based approaches. According to this view, since the traditional martial virtues (such as courage and mercy) are of little practical relevance to certain forms of modern warfare, drone pilots and other soldiers who dole out violence from great distances would be better served by clear moral rules. We argue, however, that this view is mistaken. That technologies of radical risk reduction bring some disruption to the martial virtues is undeniable, but the disruption is far less severe than has been suggested. We present an alternative account of the moral disruption caused by technologies of radical risk-reduction, highlighting how the changing nature of warfare is informing changes in what morality and virtue demand in war. Martial virtues continue to play a crucial role in ethical decision-making, as the moral performance of drone pilots in Ukraine has clearly demonstrated. We continue to have, therefore, strong reasons to educate and entrench a conception of the ‘virtuous warrior’ in today’s soldiers.

Subjects

Autonomous weapon system (AWS)

Drone (UAV)

Military ethics

Risk

Virtue ethics

War

DDC Class

320: Political Science

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publishedVersion

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s10677-025-10515-x.pdf

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873.26 KB

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Virtues and rules in war: military ethics and technologies of radical risk-reduction