Academic literature on the topic 'Peacekeeping forces – Moral and ethical aspects'

In a recent, currently unpublished, research project that sought to examine the meaning and enactment of ethical nursing practice across a variety of clinical settings, the significance of moral identity was highlighted. This article describes the findings and illuminates how the moral identities of the nurse participants arose and evolved as they navigated their way through the contextual and systemic forces that shaped the moral situations of their practice. The study revealed the socially-mediated process of identity development and the narrative, dialogical, relational and contextual nature of nurses’ moral identities.

Within military operations, military physicians and nurses experience a dual loyalty to their professional identities. The moral frameworks of the medical and military professions are not similar, and require different kinds of choices and action from its members. But above all, the legal framework in which the healthcare personnel has to operate while deployed is different from the medical moral standards. Military necessity is prioritised over medical necessity. In debates on dual loyalty, legal frameworks should be considered as a more decisive factor in ethical decision-making processes. Legal frameworks, both general and mission-specific, support this prioritisation of military necessity, complicating the work of military physicians and nurses. During the post-Cold War era, in which neutrality and moral supremacy have served as legitimising factors for military peacekeeping or humanitarian missions, this misalignment between the moral and the legal framework is problematic. What is legally correct or justifiable may not be morally acceptable to either the medical professional standards or to the general public. The legal framework should be given more prominence within the debates on dual loyalty and military medical ethics. This paper argues that the misalignment between the legal and moral framework in which deployed healthcare personnel has had to operate complicated ethical decision-making processes, impeded their agency, and created problems ranging from military operational issues to personal trauma and moral injury for the people involved, and ultimately decreasing the legitimacy of the armed forces within society.

The legislative regulation of using confidants in Ukraine, as well as the moral aspects of confidential cooperation between individuals and law enforcement agencies have been analyzed. Some reasons that contributed to the regulation of confidential cooperation at the legislative level have been revealed in the historical retrospective; the correlation of the terms of “assistance” and “cooperation” used in the operative and search legislation has been demonstrated. It has been substantiated that in the course of studying the activities of special forces of operative and search activity it is advisable to use a narrower term of “cooperation”, which reflects the specifics of the activity of such forces. The norms of not secret normative legal acts have been outlined, which enshrined the conceptual bases of work with confidants. The emphasis has been made on the need to regulate not only the rights of the confidants, but also their obligations. A comparative analysis of the society’s attitude to confidential cooperation in different countries has been conducted. The moral and ethical grounds for involving persons into confidential cooperation have been studied. The author has outlined the essential role of the ideological component in the work of the state apparatus, which influences the attitude of society to confidential cooperation. The interdependence of moral and legal aspects of confidential cooperation has been proved. It has been established that the involvement of persons, from a moral point of view, into confidential cooperation is determined by: the voluntary nature of such involvement; public duty; perception of appropriate cooperation as the assistance to the community for its proper functioning; compulsory use of confidants for the prevention and detection of latent crimes; counteracting aggressive protection of criminal interests; guaranteeing the public interests by saving the costs for law enforcement function, since the use of confidants is more financially effective than attracting additional law enforcement forces and means.

Background: Legislative changes are resulting in assisted death as an option for people at the end of life. Although nurses’ experiences and perspectives are underrepresented within broader ethical discourses about assisted death, there is a small but significant body of literature examining nurses’ experiences of caring for people who request this option. Aim: To synthesize what has been learned about nurses’ experiences of caring for patients who request assisted death and to highlight what is morally at stake for nurses who undertake this type of care. Design: Qualitative meta-synthesis. Methods: Six databases were searched: CINAHL, Medline, EMBASE, Joanna Briggs Institute, PsycINFO, and Web of Science. The search was completed on 22 October 2014 and updated in February 2016. Of 879 articles identified from the database searches, 16 articles were deemed relevant based on inclusion criteria. Following quality appraisal, 14 studies were retained for analysis and synthesis. Results: The moral experience of the nurse is (1) defined by a profound sense of responsibility, (2) shaped by contextual forces that nurses navigate in everyday end-of-life care practice, and (3) sustained by intra-team moral and emotional support. Discussion: The findings of this synthesis support the view that nurses are moral agents who are deeply invested in the moral integrity of end-of-life care involving assisted death. The findings further demonstrate that to fully appreciate the ethics of assisted death from a nursing standpoint, it is necessary to understand the broader constraints on nurses’ moral agency that operate in everyday end-of-life care. Ethical considerations: Research ethics board approval was not required for this synthesis of previously published literature. Conclusion: In order to understand how to enact ethical practice in the area of assisted death, the moral experiences of nurses should be investigated and foregrounded.

The studies in Buddhism and Science show an increased positive correlation in different aspects. This indicates a positive correlation between Buddhism and Science, i.e., physiological and functional mutual relationships. They can interact and promote each other to develop. Buddhism can be considered a bridge connecting moral ideas and scientific ideas by encouraging people to discover the hiddenly potential forces in mind towards the surrounding environment. Buddhism is always trendy; since then,Buddhism and Science have actively applied to create a more developed, civilized, and ethical society.

This updated issue of the professional publication Bulletin of the Slovenian Armed Forces is dedicated to the question of the Slovenian commitment to finding peaceful solutions to conflicts. As Commander­in­Chief of the Defence Forces of the Republic of Slovenia, I find this subject not only necessary but also entirely essential. There are many reasons for this. The historical experience of the Slovenian people has not always been pleasant regarding the preservation of national identity, manifested in the language as well as in the cultural and national tradition. Despite different repressive and denationalising measures taken by many foreign authorities, our ancestors managed to preserve the Slovenian nation through much wisdom, deep national awareness and political skill. The importance of consistent compliance with the provisions of international law in crisis situations, including wars, was seen in 1991. Slovenia won the war, not only in a military sense but also by complying with all legal norms, thus soon becoming recognised as a young European democratic country founded on high legal and moral principles. The lessons of war in 1991 increased the resolve of the Slovenian people for clear rejection of the use of force in finding solutions to any kind of conflict. For this reason, my pleasure at being invited to write about the topic of Slovenian people in the service of peace is that much greater, in part also due to the fact that I spent a large part of my professional life, from 1992 to 2005, working in the United Nations, first as the ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia, later as UN Assistant Secretary­General. In both functions I dealt with peacekeeping operations to a considerable extent. United Nations peacekeeping operations were in full swing at that time and underwent great development on the one hand, but also bitter disappointment and moments of deep doubt on the other. However, they continued to develop to the current extent. The topic of the Bulletin is presented in truly deep, scientific, theoretical and practical ways, from strategic and tactical levels, considering the evolutionary and transformational characteristics of peacekeeping operations, and deriving from historical experience. The most respected authors in the Slovenian professional field have thrown light upon important conceptual changes in the area of peacekeeping operations, which result from numerous factors, in particular from important geopolitical changes in the world. We must not disregard the increasing cooperation of regional organisations in the implementation of peacekeeping operations, which has indirectly brought about a different understanding of the term “peacekeeping operation” and opened technical discussions in the area of terminology as well as in the technical fulfilment of obligations, all the way to the question of the necessity of a preliminary UN mandate. These deficiencies can also be seen in Slovenia and point to the need for conducting a deep technical discussion as soon as possible and unifying the understanding of both the structure of the Slovenian Armed Forces and the broader defence and security system. The introductory and in particular the more theoretical parts of the Bulletin may be taken as important contributions in this regard. Some of the articles offer interesting historical insight into the cooperation of Slovenian men, and later women, in various endeavours for peace launched by individual great powers and international organisations. Although it is difficult to understand the military intervention of European forces on the island Crete in 1897 as a peacekeeping operation, the objective which is still in the forefront of contemporary efforts of the international community in this area was achieved for at least some time. This intervention ensured an armistice between the parties involved in the conflict and enabled a diplomatic solution on the island without unnecessary victims. The confidence that the highest political and military authorities in the Austro­Hungarian Empire had in the 2nd Battalion of the 87th Infantry Regiment from Celje was truly special. This was particularly the case because the military unit was mainly composed of Slovenes, and at the time of deployment in Crete its commander was a Slovene as well. However, we need to emphasise that such thinking is unconventional. By studying the literature on peacekeeping operations we see that such operations were first mentioned around 1919 in connection with peace conferences after the end of World War I and with managing various border issues in Europe, different plebiscites and other situations which, besides political and other diplomatic action, also required the protection of security and were followed by military operations intended for this particular purpose. History tells us much about peacekeeping operations intended to maintain truces. In these operations, coalition forces were deployed to an area in which a truce already existed and had to be maintained among well organised and disciplined armed forces. Today, the status of armed forces is quite different. We have to look at all of history and every aspect of international military engagement which is not armed combat by nature but a military presence with various aspects of employment of military force and the constant readiness and capability of peace forces to defend themselves effectively and be prepared to use weapons to fulfil their mandate. If today we see peacekeeping operations as valid in this respect, it is clear that we have to be familiar with history and evaluate what we can learn from past experience and how we are obliged to consider the present. Of course, we must consider the present. If we look at the status of peacekeeping operations today, we see how important this military activity is for the modern world. I will only dwell upon the United Nations, which from the standpoint of peacekeeping operations is the most important organisation operating today. Approximately 140,000 soldiers participate in peacekeeping operations under the auspices of the United Nations. No other military force has that number of uniformed personnel operating abroad. These people are assigned to eighteen currently active peacekeeping operations, each costing the organisation about seven billion dollars. This is the largest component of the budget of the United Nations. However, this expenditure is small in comparison to other kinds of military deployment outside the UN, to operations which are not peacekeeping operations by nature. Peacekeeping operations have become very multidimensional. The latest such operations, established in Africa (Darfur, Chad, Central African Republic), have been among the most demanding from the very beginning. We can thus conclude that peacekeeping operations are becoming increasingly more complex, which also results in a higher degree of risk. In 2007, 67 members of UN peacekeeping operations lost their lives. Looking at individual operations we see that six people died in Lebanon alone that year. Ever since peacekeeping operations have been in existence, Lebanon has been one of the most dangerous areas. Today, however, it is somewhat outside the sphere of interest. This may be due to the fact that there is a peacekeeping operation active in the area, on account of which a state of relative peace can be better maintained. Peacekeeping operations are both dangerous and multidimensional, multidimensional because they are no longer focused merely on keeping belligerent parties apart. Modern peacekeeping operations include both standard and supplemental functions. Providing a secure environment for political normalisation, humanitarian activity and development is a comprehensive task, requiring the engagement of peacekeeping forces in operations that are far from being common types of military deployment. This raises different questions about the training and competence of peacekeeping forces. We also have to ask ourselves how we can fully consider the lessons learned from previous peacekeeping operations and organise a system of command, particularly in organisations such as the United Nations, while at the same time making sure that national contingents do not lose their identity. There are thus two lines of communication, one through channels established by international organisations and the other through those established by national systems of armed forces. How to balance this and achieve efficient functioning? How to ensure the operation of different cultures, members and levels of competence in a way that facilitates the success of peacekeeping operations? These are always important questions to consider. In recent years the question of interest has pointed to the complexity of modern peacekeeping operations. Peacekeeping operations are frequently required to facilitate an environment in which elections can be conducted and assist in the establishment of a legal order and institutions to maintain that order. Both tasks are extremely demanding. The establishment of a safe environment for conducting elections in a country with poor communications, with no tradition of elections and with violence linked to every political event, is an extremely difficult task. The establishment of a legal order in areas with no such tradition or adequate infrastructure is even harder. There is often a need to include the civilian police, whose tasks in peacekeeping operations are very demanding. Civilian police have a number of other particularities besides problems connected to the aforementioned multidimensionality. It is necessary to adapt to the local environment in order to facilitate effective police performance. How to facilitate this in an environment such as Haiti, for example, with its difficult past? How to facilitate this in linguistically demanding environments such as East Timor until recently and in other difficult circumstances? These are all extremely demanding tasks. However, there is not much understanding with regard to all the details and problems arising from their implementation. The international political community is often satisfied merely by defining the mandate of a peacekeeping operation. For many people this signifies the solution to the problem, considering that the mandate is defined and that the deployment of forces will occur. However, this is where real problem solving only begins. Only then does it become obvious what little meaning general resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and other acts by which mandates are defined have in the context of actual situations. Therefore, I am of the opinion that we have to take a detailed look at experience from the distant past as well as the present. When speaking of the civilian police we also have to consider the fully human aspects that characterise every peacekeeping operation. Once I spoke to a very experienced leader of civilian police operations about the need to send additional police officers to the mission in Kosovo in the spring, when winter is over and people become more active, which also results in a higher crime rate. He explained that this is not only a problem in the area of this mission but elsewhere in Europe. In spring, the crime rate rises everywhere. Therefore it is difficult to find police officers during this time who are willing to leave their homeland, where they are most needed, and go to a mission area which is just then facing increased needs. I mention this to broaden understanding of the fact that the deployment of peacekeeping forces, both military and civilian police, is not only a matter of mandates and military organisation, but sometimes of the purely elementary questions that accompany social development. I have already mentioned that memory of the past is a very important component of considering present peacekeeping operations. I would like to conclude with another thought. I believe the manner of organising the knowledge of peacekeeping operations is of great importance to all countries, especially those that are new to cooperating in peacekeeping operations. This knowledge cannot be gained from books written at universities, but only from monitoring and carefully analysing the previous experiences of others. It is very important that this knowledge be carefully organised, that these experiences be carefully gathered and analysed, and that a doctrine be developed gradually. This doctrine is required for a country like Slovenia, which is new at conducting peacekeeping operations, to be able to manage well and define its role in international peacekeeping operations properly. To achieve this objective, a new country must cooperate with those countries which have been conducting peacekeeping operations for a long time and therefore have a richer experience. The neighbouring Austria is known to have one of the longest and most interesting systems of experience in peacekeeping operations within the United Nations. Ever since it joined the UN, Austria has been active in numerous activities linked to peacekeeping operations. Its soldiers and the civilian police have participated in a number of peacekeeping operations. Experience gained in this way is of great value, and using this experience is necessary for successful planning of and operating in future peacekeeping operations. The future will be complicated! At one time, when the members of peacekeeping operations numbered approximately 80,000, the United Nations thought that nothing more could be done, and a larger number of members was unthinkable. Today the number of members is significantly larger, development will most likely still continue and conditions will become even more demanding. I do not wish to forecast events which have not yet taken place. However, I would like to strongly emphasise that the history of peacekeeping operations is not over yet and that the future will be full of risks and challenges. I would also again like to stress the importance of this issue of the Bulletin of the Slovenian Armed Forces, which is entering a new decade, and express my pleasure at being able to note down a few thoughts. Let me particularly emphasise that as Commander­in­Chief of the Slovenian Defence Forces I will continue to devote special attention to achievements in the area of cooperation in peacekeeping operations in the future, having a special interest in these experiences. I thank the authors of the articles of this important issue of the Bulletin for their scientific and professional contributions – and I greatly respect those who have already done important work in the name of the Republic of Slovenia with the Slovenian flag on their shoulders, with the hope that they continue to fulfil their obligations in accordance with the rules.

Background: Explicating nurses’ moral identities is important given the powerful influence moral identity has on the capacity to exercise moral agency. Research objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore how nurses narrate their moral identity through their understanding of their work. An additional purpose was to understand how these moral identities are held in the social space that nurses occupy. Research design: The Registered Nurse Journal, a bimonthly publication of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, Canada, features a regular column entitled, ‘In the End … What Nursing Means to Me …’ These short narratives generally include a story of an important moment in the careers of the authors that defined their identities as nurses. All 29 narratives published before June 2015 were analysed using a critical narrative approach, informed by the work of Margaret Urban Walker and Hilde Lindemann, to identify a typology of moral identity. Ethical considerations: Ethics approval was not required because the narratives are publicly available. Findings: Two narrative types were identified that represent the moral identities of nurses as expressed through their work: (1) making a difference in the lives of individuals and communities and (2) holding the identities of vulnerable individuals. Discussion: Nurses’ moral identities became evident when they could see improvement in the health of patients or communities or when they could maintain the identity of their patients despite the disruptive forces of illness and hospitalization. In reciprocal fashion, the responses of their patients, including expressions of gratitude, served to hold the moral identities of these nurses. Conclusion: Ultimately, the sustainability of nurses’ moral identities may be dependent on the recognition of their own needs for professional satisfaction and care in ways that go beyond the kind of acknowledgement that patients can offer.

The article focuses on the social aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the Czech Armed Forces (CAF) and, more specifically, on professional ethics as a prerequisite for the sustainable development of the security organization. The text presents the results of research conducted on a sample of 278 members of the CAF. This research was based on Schwartz’s holistic concept. To determine value orientation, a reduced version with 21 entries of the Schwartz’s Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) was used. Our data indicate that value orientation changes depending on military rank, depends, to a certain degree, on trait conformity (including obedience, respect for authorities, politeness, and self-control), and increases in the presence of lower-ranking individuals. Based on these findings the authors recommend to continue monitoring the value profiles of CAF members at various stages in their careers, to determine the optimal range of self-identification with a certain military rank and position, and to provide rank and position-specific educational programs into military ethics and ethical leadership aimed at sustainable development of moral-values.

While modern normative approaches to ethics of war (just war theories) stumble over theoretical aporia of legitimating ?collective organized violence? such as the war, anthropological approaches to the practical ethics of the military servicemen focus on the lived moral experience and the enacted values of individuals who were placed in the situation of ?total violence?. Drawing on the memoirs of two generals who were Commanders-in-Chief in Afgha?nistan (B. Gromov) and in Chechnya (G. Troshev), the article explores the ethos of military leadership in modern warfare. The article demonstrates that strategic planning of military operations is inseparable from political goals and, therefore, involves military leadership in reflection on whether political goals are legitimate, whether national (and international) civil society should give its support to the military, whether military means are the best option for solving the crisis, and whether there is a viable exit strategy. Both generals declare the fundamental principle of sparing as many lives of their troops as possible in achieving their military objectives. But this principle, in the first case, leads to various attempts at ?freezing? hostilities between opposing forces, whereas in the second step it requires ultimate destruction of the enemy no matter the cost. Thus, the text argues that the ethics of war and the ethos of the military leadership are determined by the way their opponent is framed by the political leadership. In both generals? view, military hostilities ultimately result from political failures.

That cacophony you hear is coming from the growing number of commentators addressing ethical, social, and policy issues raised by nanotechnology. Like many novel technologies that disturb the status quo, nanotechnologies raise questions about the adequacy of oversight systems; the extent to which the technologies push legal, moral, and political boundaries; and ultimately, the implications for human health and well-being. Because nanoscale techniques and products challenge our ways of thinking about biology, physics, and chemistry, nanotechnology forces us to reconsider accepted wisdom on toxicity, mutagenicity, contamination, biocompatibility, and other interactions among humans, the environment, and technologies. The sheer scale and reach of nanotechnologies demands institutions, collaborations, and conventions that can cross-link knowledge across organizations, disciplines, and locales. If ever there was an occasion to rethink the limits of disciplinary-specific knowledge, norms about regulatory processes, and societal implications of new technologies, nanotechnologies provide the opportunity.

Peacekeeping sex, or sex between peacekeepers and local people, is a long-standing and serious issue, and its current regulation is fraught and unsatisfactory. The United Nations (UN) has shifted from an unofficial 'boys will be boys' approach in Cambodia in the early 1990s to the current 'zero tolerance' policy that prohibits sexual exploitation and abuse. Until recently, the peacekeeping literature largely ignored the issue of peacekeeping sex. The academic literature is split between supporting the zero tolerance approach and critiquing the policy's over-inclusiveness, problems with enforcement and unintended consequences. This thesis asks how peacekeeping sex can be better regulated and proposes a feminist regulatory framework that uses regulatory tools to make international law more responsive and effective in achieving feminist objectives. This thesis differs from other studies of peacekeeping sex by examining international law from a regulatory perspective. Responsive regulation sees law as one of a range of regulatory options and envisages a broader range of regulatory mechanisms and actors than a state-centric view of law. A regulatory perspective involves evaluating the capacity of international law for setting standards, monitoring compliance and enforcement through a discussion of jurisdiction, immunity and the responsibility of states and international organisations. The thesis assesses whether regulatory tools, such as the zero tolerance policy, advance feminist objectives by highlighting the extent to which local women are empowered or disenfranchised by particular regulatory regimes. Unlike other studies of peacekeeping sex, this thesis also considers sex between private military contractors and humanitarian non-government organisation (NGO) workers, who increasingly act as subcontractors and partners in UN peace operations. The discussion of legal and policy regulation is grounded in three case studies of how the regulation of peacekeeping sex operates in practice. The first case study considers private military contractors employed by the private military security company, DynCorp, who participated in and benefitted from the trafficking of women into the Bosnian sex industry in the late 1990s-early 2000s. The second case study looks at humanitarian NGO workers who exchanged aid for sex with teenage girls in refugee camps in West Africa in 2002. The third study, of UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2004, highlights the unenforceability of the UN zero tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse. All the case studies point to problems of irrelevance, incoherence and non-responsiveness in the current regulatory regime for peacekeeping sex. The thesis concludes by suggesting ways in which law can be made more effective and responsive to feminist concerns through coupling it with non-legal regulatory mechanisms. These include building on developments in regulating NGOs and private military security companies, such as peer review and reporting mechanisms, and more traditional means at international law, such as the development of new treaties and amendment of existing treaties. Peacekeeping sex highlights the need for new ways of including non-state actors in international law, as both the subjects and objects ofregulation. The thesis also indicates the potential for greater engagement between international law and regulatory theory, as well as between feminist theory and regulation.

The importance of considering gender in the effective delivery of international humanitarian assistance (IHA) is well appreciated by the international humanitarian community. Yet evidence suggests that the translation of this appreciation into effective policy and practice remains elusive. This thesis investigates the conceptualisation and implementation of gender policy across the international humanitarian system. It argues that global humanitarian responses continue to fail in consistently addressing gender-based issues and remain ad hoc despite a relatively constant global discourse on the issue. The thesis pursues this argument in three parts. Part One reviews the theory, ethics and policy that drive IHA, including its gender work. It explores the theories of cosmopolitanism and communitarianism in international relations and the place of feminist theories within these. Drawing on this analysis, the thesis then moves on to discuss the history and contemporary expression of the international humanitarian system, considering its effects for gender work. Part Two examines humanitarian response in the field, exploring three case studies where humanitarian organisations responded to different types of emergencies in disparate parts of the globe. These case studies focus on responses to the ongoing displacement crises in South Sudan (2011 onwards), the cholera outbreak in Papua New Guinea (2009-2011) and the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (2011). Through analysis of interviews and organisational documents, this section reveals that the implementation of gender policy is subject to the fulfilment of several conditions related to organisational mandate, emergency type, and pre-existing gender structures in the particular context. Together, these conditions suggest that the liberal feminist framework guiding gender work is inappropriate for, and ineffective in, the current international humanitarian system. Drawing together the arguments of Parts One and Two, Part Three elaborates that a deficit exists in the policy and practice of gender work in IHA as a result of its fundamental theoretical underpinning. To address this deficit, the thesis concludes by advocating for a change in prevailing approaches to gender in IHA. The thesis suggests that attention to a critical feminist ethics of care may be able to reform gender work to make it compatible with the various conditions of particular humanitarian contexts.