ABSTRACT

Western militaries are duty bound to exercise self-control when deployed, especially during Operations Other Than War, creating challenges for their ethics education. This chapter first describes the constraints that modern militaries face, using the Netherlands Armed Forces as an example. Subsequently, the chapter briefly outlines different ways in which ethics education can cope with these restraints. It goes into some of these challenges, describing first the constraints modern militaries such as the Dutch face, especially when conducting Operations Other Than War. The subsequent section describes how, and to what extent, the ethics curriculum of the Netherlands Defence Academy (NLDA) is aligned for today's missions. In this three-day introduction, which covers not only ethics but also other fields, cadets and midshipmen are briefly introduced to notions such as just war theory, physical and moral courage, the Kohlberg levels, and virtue ethics.