Training

AT a conference dedicated to “International Justice, War Crimes and Terrorism: The US Record,” it is intriguing to see the subject of training placed so high on the agenda. And yet, I would suggest that the organizers have shown a degree of shrewdness here. We all agree that “prevention is better than cure” and it is in the area of training that much of the preventative work is done in this field. If we want our troops to “Fight it Right,” then we must teach them what is right. I am conscious that I speak as an outsider in terms of the United States record and I therefore do not intend to address that—except to say that I consider it second to none. Others can comment on the detail. I wish to look at why we train. First, and most obviously, it is the law. As far back as 1899, Article 1 of Hague Convention II with Respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land stated: The High Contracting Parties shall issue instructions to their armed forces which shall be in conformity with the Regulations respecting the laws and customs of war on land, annexed to the present Convention. Similar wording can be found in Hague Convention IV of 1907. This was mainly understood at the time to deal with military manSOCIAL RESEARCH, Vol. 69, No. 4 (Winter 2002) Training: The Whys and Wherefores* BY CHARLES H. B. GARRAWAY *The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the British Ministry of Defense or the British government. uals and, as with so many of these provisions, received limited compliance. The United Kingdom and the United States had manuals by the outbreak of the First World War, but even today few have followed.1 It is as a result of this failure that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has now published its model manual, Fight It Right, to which I referred obliquely earlier. Manuals, however, are only a small part of the solution. Bookshelves are full of unread manuals. A manual is only an aid to instruction and so Article 127 of the Third Geneva Convention (1949) went further: The High Contracting Parties undertake, in time of peace as in time of war, to disseminate the text of the present Convention as widely as possible in their respective countries and, in particular, to include the study thereof in their programmes of military and, if possible, civil instruction, so that the principles thereof may become known to their armed forces and to the entire population.2 Merely to say that the law requires training is, in my view, not enough. I would like to look again at the text of Article 127 and to draw one word from it: “principles.” The Geneva Conventions alone contain 429 detailed articles. One cannot expect the average soldier (if there is such a thing) to “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” all of that. However, he or she does need to know those parts that are of direct relevance to the task allocated, and the principles that lie behind them. I think that the word “principle” is important here because it implies more than rote learning, more than manuals. It implies an ethos, a philosophical outlook, and it is here that training comes into its own. I recall meeting an African officer a few years ago who had been detailed to take his unit to Somalia as part of the United Nations peacekeeping force there. He had never heard of the Geneva Conventions or the law of armed conflict but he called his men together and told them that they must do “what is right.” I met him at the International Institute of Humanitarian 950 SOCIAL RESEARCH Law at San Remo, Italy, at one of the military courses held there to teach officers about the law of armed conflict. After three days he came up and told me the story, and added, “I’m glad somebody has written down what is right!” But recent events show to us all too clearly that it is insufficient to rely on an

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