Superior Orders, Nuclear Warfare, and the Dictates of Conscience

The Dilemma of Military Obedience in the Atomic Age

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9445702
AutoresGuenter Lewy (Smith College, autor correspondente)
Ano1961
Volume55
Fascículo1
Páginas3-23
Data de publicação1961-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAmerican Political Science Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1976046
OpenAlexW4230712017
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas22

When Francis Gary Powers was asked by the presiding judge of the Soviet military tribunal trying him for espionage whether he had not considered the possibility that his U-2 flight might provoke armed conflict, the captured pilot answered, “The people who sent me should think of these things. My job was to carry out orders. I do not think it was my responsibility to make such decisions.” This article deals with a similar problem, a predicament which to this day, fortunately, has remained hypothetical, but which may become distressingly real at some time in the future. It concerns the unenviable position of the military subordinate commanded to use nuclear weapons, who may be punished today if he disobeys and prosecuted tomorrow if he obeys. The discussion initially evolves around three issues in international law: (1) the validity of the plea of superior orders as a defense in war crimes trials; (2) the question of the legality of using nuclear weapons; and (3) the present status and future of the law of war. That these problem areas are intimately related should become clear as we proceed. The disregard for humanitarian and moral considerations which has increasingly characterized the conduct of war in the twentieth century, and, more recently, the development of nuclear weapons—the tools of mass extermination par excellence —have led many students of international law to conclude that the laws of war are dead. Grotius' doctrine of the temperamenta belli , requiring belligerents to conduct hostilities with regard for the principles of humanity and chivalry, as well as the many conventions drawn up prior to World War I in order to regulate the use of violence, are said to have become largely obsolete

Belligerent · Charter · Conscience · Dilemma · Doctrine · International humanitarian law · International law · Nuclear weapon · Plea · Political science · Politics · Principle of legality · Sociology · Terrorism · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · International Law and Human Rights · Law · Philosophy · War, Ethics, and Justification