Political Ethics Projects

Active Projects

The following projects by members of the Political Ethics programme are currently active:

Military Ethics Education Network (Project Leader: Prof James Connelly, Project Director: Don Carrick)

The Military Ethics Education Network was established in 2008 with the aim of undertaking a critical examination, comparison and evaluation of the exisiting education programmes of the armed forces of Western states, and of making recommendations for the improvement and harmonisation of such programmes. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust, the Network is conducting a three-year project to further these aims and objectives.

The Network has built upon previous work led by the Institute of Applied Ethics at the University of Hull. This work revealed significant differences in approaches to ethics education in different countries, notably that:

• while some institutions focus on character development as the key to ensuring ethical behaviour, others disagree with this approach
• different countries put responsibility for ethics training on the shoulders of very different people (philosophers, soldiers, lawyers, clergy etc) 
• the lists of values and virtues produced by armed forces vary considerably
• ethics education is overwhelmingly directed towards commissioned officers
• case studies are the preferred pedagogical method, but there is a shortage of suitable studies for teaching purposes
• and there is little data available from which conclusions can be drawn as to which approaches to ethics education in the military work best.

These conclusions establish the need for further research to determine the advantages and disadvantages of the various approaches, and to make suggestions for future policy. In light of the above, the project has the following specific research objectives:

• to examine and clarify the purpose of ethics education in the military
• to determine the proper roles of different professional groups in ethics programmes
• to compare and examine the values and virtues emphasised by Western militaries
• to examine the balance between the ethics education provided to officers and that provided to other ranks
• to assess the various approaches and methods of ethical education adopted in participating institutions and gauge their effectiveness
• to produce textbooks and case studies.

The Network extends across eleven countries. Ten individual scholars constitute the official core membership of the Network. They attend workshops, contribute to the edited volumes and help in the carrying out of the programme. The core members and their institutions were selected both on the basis of their prior experience in the field of military ethics education, and in order to ensure participation from a wide variety of countries. They comprise a mix of academics and practitioners (in order to combine both theory and practice) and also persons from several disciplinary backgrounds (including philosophy, security studies, history and sociology) in order to provide input from as many relevant perspectives as possible. In addition, an ever-increasing number of interested ‘visitors' participate in the activities of the Network and make very significant contributions to the achievement of its stated aims and objectives.

Core institutions: Institute of Applied Ethics, University of Hull; Defence Academy of the United Kingdom; US Military Academy at West Point; US Air Force Academy; The Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa; Zentrum für Innere Führung (Centre for Leadership and Civic Education), Koblenz, Germany; Jerusalem Centre for Ethics; Saint-Cyr Military Academy, France; Royal Netherlands Military Academy; Centre for Defence Leadership Studies, Australian Defence College.

Award:  The Leverhulme Trust awarded a grant of £82,163 for this three year project.

Ethics and Civil Society (Prof James Connelly, Prof Paul Gilbert, Dr Antony Hatzistavrou, Prof Gerry Johnstone, Dr Colin Tyler, Dr Suzanne Uniacke, Dr Margarita Zernova)

The Russian participants in this project are: Prof. Abdusalam Gusseinov (Russian Academy of Sciences), Prof. Ruben Apressyan (Russian Academy of Sciences), Prof. Alexander Razin (Philosophy, Lomonosov State University), Prof. Andrey Prokofyev (Lomonosov State University), Prof. Boris Kashnikov (Higher School of Economy, Moscow) and Prof. Irina Myurberg  (Sector for the History of Political Philosophy Institute of Philosophy Russia).  Following a visit to the IAE by Professors Gusseinov, Apressyan and Razin in 2008, a two-day workshop was held in Moscow at the Russian Academy of Sciences and Moscow Lomonosov State University, in January 2009.  The discussion used a variety of political, legal and philosophical perspectives to approach the questions of: How should we conceive of civil society? What sorts of ethical questions arise from the renaissance of ‘civil society' as a central focus of an array of political and social projects?

The workshop was organised jointly by Dr Suzanne Uniacke of the Institute of Applied Ethics and Professor Ruben Apressyan, Head of the Sector of Ethics at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Philosophy. The workshop was funded by a grant from the British Academy and the Russian Academy of Sciences under their ‘Special Joint Project Programme', which supports joint projects between British and East European scholars in the fields of the humanities and social sciences.  The participants from the Institute of Applied Ethics were:  James Connelly, Antony Hatzistavrou, Gerry Johnstone, Colin Tyler and Suzanne Uniacke. Following two days of intensive discussion, the workshop concluded with an agreement to hold a further interdisciplinary workshop at the University of Hull in 2010, with a view to producing an edited volume in Russian and English comparing developments in Russia and Britain and exploring their significance for international debate about civil society and democracy.

The second two day workshop was held at the University of Hull, 25-26 September 2010, once again funded by a grant from the British Academy and the Russian Academy of Sciences under their ‘Special Joint Project Programme'.  The participants from the Institute of Applied Ethics were:  James Connelly, Antony Hatzistavrou, Gerry Johnstone, Colin Tyler, Suzanne Uniacke and Margarita Zernova.  The participants from Russia were Ruben Apressyan, Andrey Prokofyev, Boris Kashnikov and Irina Myrberg.  Two days of intensive discussion were based on papers from both sides, distributed in advance, and on commentaries on these papers.  Plans and work for an edited volume in Russian and English comparing developments in Russia and Britain and exploring their significance for international debate about civil society and democracy are well underway.

A third workshop is planned for early 2012 to complete the project.

The Justification of Legal and Political Authority (Dr Antony Hatzistavrou - Philosophy)

Dr Hatzistavrou's research is focused on the conceptual analysis and the justification of legal and political authority. Currently he is addressing the issue of the normativity of authoritative directives. The principal thesis he advances is that authoritative directives have a purely epistemic function. They are not strictly speaking reasons for action but rather epistemic warrants that the agent has certain (other) reasons for action. To substantiate his principal thesis he uses an approach which employs the conceptual resources of both philosophy of action and rational choice theory. Furthermore, he has sought to bring this approach to bear on leading topics in philosophy of law, like the internal point of view. His research is also informed by engagement with ancient philosophy and in particular with Plato's account of political authority.

The Ethics of Retaliation and Pre-emption (Dr Suzanne Uniacke & Professor Paul Gilbert - Philosophy, Dr Paul Robinson - University of Ottawa)

An examination of the ethics of retaliation and pre-emption in a range of contexts. This project includes Suzanne Uniacke's published and forthcoming work on pre-emption and retaliation, Paul Gilbert's work on pre-emptive strikes, and Paul Robinson's work on pre-emptive war.  Publications in this area include:  Suzanne Uniacke, 'On Getting One's Retaliation in First', in David Rodin and Henry Shue (eds), Pre-emption, Military Action and Justification (Oxford University Press, 2007).

The Virtues of Environmental Citizenship (Prof James Connelly - Politics, Dr Stephen Burwood - Philosophy)

Prof Connelly and Dr Burwood are working together on developing the connections between environmental ethics and the politics of the environment. Central to this project is the idea of environmental citizenship, the environmental virtues appropriate to it, and the role of the state in promoting environmental virtue.

This work is related to a broader research theme in civil society and institutions on which Prof Connelly is currently working.  This research aims to integrate political participation and the ethics of citizenship with conceptions of civil society and its enhancement. 

New Players, New Rules? Cooperation and Conflict Between the European Union and the Peoples' Republic of China (Dr Thomas M Kane and  Dr Xiudian Dai - Politics)

This project commenced in August 2007 with a grant from the British Academy of £5,855. Research continues, with active major conference participation and some financial assistance from the British Political Studies Association. Work is focused on the contemporary relevance of traditional concepts in strategic theory, and the ethical dimension of waging war in the twenty-first century.


Recently Concluded Projects

The Ethics of Conduct: The Impact of New Media Technologies on Parliamentary Democracy in Europe

The overall aim of this project is to investigate to what extent and in what ways the development of new media technologies, such as the Internet and eDemocracy, raises new ethical challenges to contemporary parliamentary democracy in Europe. More specifically, the project explores three inter-related themes:

1. The ethics of behaviour: How are new media technologies, in particular the internet, used by parliamentarians in facilitating consultation with voters?
2. The ethics of codes of conduct: Are there any formal institutional control and monitoring mechanisms of parliamentarians’ use of new media technologies?
3. The ethics of accountability: What impact do new media technologies have upon the principle and practice of open government in the information age?

The project was undertaken by a multidisciplinary research team including Dr Xiudian Dai (Project Coordinator, University of Hull), Dr Cristina Leston-Bandeira (University of Hull), Dr Lee Miles (University of Liverpool), Professor The Lord Norton of Louth (University of Hull) and Rosa Vicente (Project Research Assistant, University of Hull). The research team has publicised their research findings on their project website (www.hull.ac.uk/e-parliament).