Military Ethical Reform in Eastern Europe and Russia
Presented to
The International Symposium of Military Ethics
Adazi Training Center
Riga, Latvia
March 5 - 10, 2002
by
Iouri Noskov
Russia
kostanoskov@mtu-net.ru
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen!
I am very glad to have the opportunity to make this presentation to you in this conference, whose activity is dedicated to the establishment of relations in human community that is based on mutual understanding and respect.
At all times the observance of morality requirements is a necessary condition for the existence of any society. Nowadays, when the world community has to face the difficulties of social life, this has become a matter of vital importance.
Improving the role of morality provides the growth of the role of ethics.
The attention to problems of ethics is accompanied by the influence of a great number of factors following the peculiarities of human development process in modern life.
First of all, the role of ethics increases along with the development and intensification of the process of economic progress of countries of the world into a single unified system.
This economic integration is accompanied by strengthening political, legal and moral systems in different countries. Interaction of various moral systems is a very complicated process, because the systems of moral values in different nations (West and East, North and South) often have different religious, historical and cultural backgrounds. The growth of an antiglobalism movement which involves an ever increasing number of acts of violence shows that the study of ethical aspects of the world integration process is vital not only for its theoretical but practical aspects, too.
Second, the role of ethics in today's world increases because progress of development in science and technology brings complicated moral problems. Further development of human civilization may depend on the solution of these problems. For example, the situation around cloning projects has vividly demonstrated this. Further development of science and technology will expand the abilities of man to change the environment. How can mankind properly use its ever-expanding opportunities? This problem cannot be resolved without understanding its ethical aspects.
Progress in science and technology will more and more convince society of this need. It was the French philosopher Michel de Monten, who said: "The one who has not learned the science of goodness will only get harm from learning any other science." Another important fact, which makes ethics problems urgent today, is that in our time of high technology, there are forces which are still involved with armed violence, as well as the means of war to resolve social contradictions. Resolving social contradictions through this method in the 21st century is a remnant of the past; nevertheless, it still remains in the arsenal of some forces that could be
considered evil forces. Fighting against these forces, which include, for example, international terrorism, demands response measures. Here the civilized community faces a well-known ethical problem-correlation of a noble goal (struggle against evil) and employment of violence, which must be used in this struggle.
The problem could be formulated like this: "To what extent can violence be used by the forces of goodness against the forces of evil too still remain to be good?"
An answer to this question and the time of a growing threat of international terrorism requires accurate definition of correlation between morality and law, and in particular, correlation between morality and international law. This correlation should be considered while taking into account new circumstances that have never existed before in the history of mankind.
The above circumstances, which make the role of ethics of vital importance in today's life, contribute to the importance of such a specific branch of professional ethics as military ethics.
First, the process of globalization changes the approach to cooperation between military organizations in different countries of the world. In particular, the end of the Cold War brought relations between military organizations of Western and Eastern Europe to a new phase. New relations between these military organizations must become one of its elements. They must be based not on confrontation but on greater trust, and respect for the honor and dignity of the other. In opinion of the Russian Duma, the Ministry of Defense and the President of Russia, it has been mentioned many times, that a moral basis makes it possible to build a military alliance of a new quality which will respond to international terrorism as well as to any state trying to threaten the world community.
Second, the importance of military ethics problems increases because the struggle between good and evil in the sphere of military area, along with the growth of the means to attack, means that this struggle becomes more and cruel, judging by the growing number of its victims. This circumstance demands from the military a higher level of moral responsibility to make careful decisions regarding the use of weapons. What kind of decision should it be?
It is impossible to give the military a complete set of recommendations regarding their behavior in any kind of situation where a moral choice is required. Professional and moral duty of military officers is to arm their junior officers and younger soldiers with basic moral principles they can rely on to make the right moral choice in complicated situations. This is the meaning of ethical leadership.
Complication of moral aspects of armed struggle demands to increase the level of ethical leadership. Practice shows that major conditions of ethical leadership are the following:
1. High level of officers' morality.
2. Officers must share their knowledge and experience and learn the methods of moral education accumulated by their colleagues.
3. Officers' deep knowledge of moral priorities of their subordinates, and peculiarities of their moral consciousness.
I assume that during this conference we will discuss these and other problems to raise the efficiency of ethical leadership and share our work experience.
The issues of military ethics in general and issues of ethical leadership are of vital importance to the Russian Armed Forces today. It is known, that Russia today experiences the consequences of a deep systemic crisis. One of the elements of this crisis is a moral systemic crisis. It is widely known that the crisis has literally affected all spheres of our society life.
In the economic sphere, this is expressed through a wide range deception of consumers and business colleagues, in the gigantic plundering of state funds, and destruction of national resources through exploitation.
In the political sphere it is expressed through the neglect of its national interests from a portion of the country's political elite, in the extremely high level of corruption, in the formation of administrative state structures--not by the principle ' The best people to power" but rather according to the principle "Power only to those who comply." The logic of the majority of State officials in today's Russia is dictated not by national interests but by the logic of struggle for only personal, individual interests.
In the sphere of culture, art and mass media, moral degradation has occurred and is occurring today under a slogan of "Freedom" which in fact has changed into the slogan "Permissiveness of all kinds." In practice, this brought us to the spreading of sexual perversion, glamorization of criminality, and has given the use of drugs the status of one of the human rights.
In the sphere of morality, moral degradation resulted in devaluation of such basic ethical categories as "conscience," "duty," "honor," and "dignity."
Thus, we can say that at the present time, moral security is under a threat in Russia.
It's generally known that moral crisis in modern Russia is accompanied by the growth of crime, prostitution, drug addition, and the number of HIV-infected people.
All the above-mentioned aspects have directly influenced our Armed Forces. Here are some headlines of Russian newspaper and journal articles reflecting a recent state of affairs in the army: *An article entitled "One third of officers want to retire." This is about the fall of prestige of military service among officers. *An article entitled "Sergeant, how much does the cartridge cost?" This is about stealing and selling of weapons and ammunition from military storage.
*Another article entitled "Wave of criminality in the army becomes a tsunami." This is about the growth of crimes within all ranks of the military, including among generals.
A moral crisis in the Russian army is very dangerous for our country as well as for the security of the world.
In this connection, we hope that our participation in this high-level conference and its materials will help us to work out the measures to counteract these problems, thereby enriching the experience of our officers in carrying out ethical education of subordinates. This will result in the strengthening of our Armed Forces, and improve morale and readiness. Russia itself will become stronger and its policy, including the military one, will become more significant for the security of the world's community.
Thank you very much for your attention.
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