Stephen ColemanMilitary Ethics: An Introduction with Case Studies

The case studies make it interesting and easy to understand

This is not a textbook on military ethics, but rather an anthology of scholarly-based pieces drawing upon the philosophy of ethics tradition. It assumes, therefore, a background in that. As such, it is not suitable for basic ethics classes, but useful in upper level classes at military schools or elsewhere. That is, I think, its purpose. The students would need to have a degree of comfort with this level of abstraction and linguistic complexity. With that kind of upper level class, it could be very useful for a seminar-type discussion class where students do a good deal of the work, presenting a theme, leading a discussion, doing independent research. If you get it expecting a "textbook" to be used in an introductory class, you will be disappointed. That would be a poor pick on the teacher's part, not a fault of the anthology itself. It could perhaps be paired, later in a semester, with an introductory text covered earlier in a semester, in a class in which the teacher felt that kind of "stepped" challenge were appropriate. You could, then, prepare students ahead of time for the transition to a higher degree of complexity and abstraction.

I was lucky enough to take Stephen Colemans course in military ethics and this book was used for readings and as a focus for discussion in tutorials. This book proved extremely interesting and stimulated heated discussion. Much like Coleman’s lecturing, it presents sometimes complex ideas in a straight-forward and logical manner which allowed for greater understanding across a diverse student body. I enjoyed the book and the course immensely and would recommend it to anyone wishing to gain a greater understanding of military ethics.

Very interesting case studies. Great book.