Teaching the ethics of war
through art
Charts by Julie Arliss
& Henry Kirk
•Velazquez, Diego
Mars c. 1639-41
WAR
• SOME QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS:
• Research stories associated with
Mars, god of war.
• What do you notice about the
way Mars is represented in this
painting?
• What do you think Velazquez
might be trying to say about war?
• Do you think there are some
things worth going to war for? If
not, why not. If you think there
are, what would they be?
• When a decision has been made
to go to war do you think there
should be any rules as to what an
army can do?
• Do you think God has anything to
do with war?
• Does God ordain when a war
should be fought and govern the
way people behave in war?
God and War in Christian Thinking: JUST WAR
• The origins of Just War discussion go back
to Ambrose of Milan and, in particular, to
St. Augustine who had to confront a new
political situation.
• The Roman Empire in which Christianity
had grown so rapidly was pagan.
• The emerging Christian religion was
essentially pacifist – Jesus’ teaching
seemed to have commanded his followers
never to take revenge, to turn the other
cheek and not to defend themselves.
Piero della Francesca
Constantine's Dream c. 1466
• This changed when the
Emperor Constantine became
Christian.
• In 312 CE, on the evening of a
critical battle between
Constantine and Maxentius to
decide who would be sole
Roman emperor, Constantine
in a dream saw the Christian
cross and received the
message, “In this sign
conquer”.
• He won the battle.
• 313 CE he issued the Edict of
Milan, which asserted the first
official toleration of the
Christian religion
• When Constantine was baptised Christianity
became the established religion of the Roman
Empire.
• The Roman Empire needed to defend itself and
this meant going to war. But Christianity up until
this point had been pacifist.
• Constantine’s dream seemed to suggest that God
affirmed him as emperor, but it also appeared to
him on the eve of battle.
• The end of Christian pacifism was inevitable.
• Augustine’s task was to justify the role of a
Christian in a situation of war.
• Augustine drew on the existing Roman idea of
‘justum bellum’ but also on the Old Testament
tradition where wars on behalf of Israel and
Israel’s God were clearly commanded by this God.
St. Augustine
• Augustine concluded
that since the Empire
was Christian, the
empire was under
God’s divine
protection and
Christians could fight
in war to protect the
interests of the
empire
Two issues….
• Augustine differentiated
between two issues:
• 1. When it was right to engage in
war (Jus ad Bellum), and
• 2. How wars should be fought (Jus in
Bello).
JUS AD BELLUM
• St. Augustine considered:
• 1) The war had to be authorised by a
legitimate authority
• 2) There has to be a just cause for going to
war. Such a cause could include:
• 1) The righting of wrongs;
• 2) The punishment of injustice
• 3) The bringing of peace.
• These objectives were held to justify almost
anything and Augustine even approved
torture and the killing of innocents if this was
necessary to bring peace. However he did
maintain that warfare had to be undertaken
in the right spirit and without hatred.
WAR: The Bringing of Peace
Peter Paul RUBENS 1577-1640 ALLEGORY OF PEACE AND WAR 1629-30
JUS AD BELLUM
• The principal modern legal source of jus ad
bellum derives from the Charter of the
United Nations, which declares in:
• Article 2: “All members shall refrain in their
international relations from the threat or
the use of force against the territorial
integrity or political independence of any
state, or in any other manner inconsistent
with the purposes of the United Nations”;
and in
• Article 51: “Nothing in the present Charter
shall impair the inherent right of individual
or collective self-defense if an armed attack
occurs against a Member of the United
Nations.”
WAR: The Righting of Wrongs
DELACROIX
1798-1863,
FRENCH
LIBERTY
LEADING
THE
PEOPLE
1830
WAR: The Righting of Wrongs
• This picture commemorates the three-day French
revolution of 1830.
• It depicts the assault on Hôtel de Ville in Paris on
the 28th July 1830, part of a three-day revolution
against the tyrannical rule of the Bourbon King
Charles X of France.
• This picture seems to glorify war, which is
regarded as bringing freedom to the French
people.
• The working class and middle class are presented
as victorious and triumphant, as they overthrow
the monarchy of Charles X with the help of the
figure of Liberty.
• So this picture leads us to ask
whether war is acceptable if it
involves the righting of perceived
wrongs.
• Rousseau, Henri
• Liberty Inviting Artists
to Take Part in the
22nd Exhibition of the
Societe des Artistes
Independants
1905-6
• Oil on canvas
175 x 118 cm
The National Museum
of Modern Art,
Punishment of
Injustice
• The Second
World War
was fought to
rectify a wrong
but also to
punish
Germany for
the injustice of
invading
Poland
Kirchner, Ernst Ludwig
Selbstbildnis als Soldat
(Self-portrait as soldier)
1915
Additional Reasons for Going to War
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
To Preserve ‘our’ Way of Life
To defend against invasion
To protect innocent life
To Defend National Honour
To keep a government in power (provoking a
war is one way in which some governments
have sought to keep themselves in power)
6. To gain territory
7. To acquire additional resources (some
forecasters consider that, in the 21st Century,
wars may be fought to secure access to water
which may become increasingly scarce).
ALL THESE CAN BE MORE COMPLICATED THAN THEY
APPEAR AND NOT ALL WOULD BE A ‘JUST’
CAUSE FOR WARFARE.
Are some ways of life more worth
preserving than others?
Pissarro, Camille
Boulevard Montmartre: Night
Is it possible to have a romantic notion of the ‘way of
life one is fighting to preserve?
Pissarro, Camille
La moisson
The Harvest at Montfoucault
1876
The Injury Suffered Must Justify War.
• PROPORTIONALISM
• The means used in the war must be
proportionate to the danger faced.
• There must be a reasonable
proportion between the injury
suffered and the pain and death
which will result from war.
• Taking proportionality seriously has
the great advantage of taking
recognising the effect of warfare on
the other side and this is element
often neglected.
PROPORTIONALISM
• This is based on the
Natural Law
approach to ethics
and maintains that:
• 1) The evil of war
must be justified.
• 2) The harm
suffered must
justify the
widespread
suffering that will
come.
SIQUEIROS, David Alfaro
Echo of a Scream
1937
Proportionalism as part of a decision to go
to war demands that the full evils of the war
Are anticipated in advance.
Is taking life and innocent suffering as well
as the refugees who will be created justified?
Kitaj, R.B.
Cecil Court,
London WC2
(The Refugees)
1983-84
To Defend National Honour
• Wars fought to defend ‘national honour’
should, under Just War criteria, always be
viewed with suspicion. As Paskins and
Docknill write:
•
‘...wars fought in defence of national
honour must be viewed with suspicion as if
one outweighs the value of human beings
against national honour, the former should
always have priority. It is always important to
maintain a clear view of one’s own and one’s
enemies humanity.’
• This is an important insight which goes back
to St. Augustine who clearly pointed out that
warfare must be undertaken without hatred.
Johns, Jasper
Three Flags
1958
Johns, Jasper
White Flag
1955
• How do you think the concept of
American national honour is
challenged by this piece of Art?
There must be a reasonable chance of
victory.
• US Catholic Bishops said that in order
for a war to be just one of the
criteria is that ‘there must be a
reasonable possibility of success’.
• This was included to prevent
countries going to war when this
would be folly and destruction is
certain
• However this can lead to the build up
of forces prior to war so that the
chances of success are increased.
(This happened in Germany between
1935 and 1939)
• Do some research
on ‘Victory.’
• Why might victory
be pictured as
‘winged’?
• Why do you think a
country might go to
war if they thought
they would surely
loose?
Louvre – winged victory – Greek
JUS IN BELLO
• This deals with how wars should be fought. It
covers the ethical issues and the laws that come
into effect once a war has begun. Its purpose is
to regulate how wars are fought, without
prejudice to the reasons of how or why they had
begun.
• So a party engaged in a war that could easily be
defined as unjust (for example, Iraq’s aggressive
invasion of Kuwait in 1990) should still have to
adhere to certain rules during the prosecution of
the war, as would the side committed to righting
the initial injustice.
• This branch of law relies on customary law, based
on recognized practices of war, as well as treaty
laws (such as the Hague Regulations of 1899 and
1907), which set out the rules for the conduct of
hostilities.
Jus in Bello: Proportionalism
• The way the war is fought must be
proportionate to the injury suffered and
which resulted in the war.
• For Australia to fire bomb the capital of
East Timor to increase still further its
share of the oil field that lies between the
two countries (presently 82/18% in
Australia’s favour) would not be a
proportionate way of Australia securing
her objectives.
Polke, Sigmar
Hannibal with his
Armoured Elephants
1982
• If you look very
carefully you can
see two
elephants up
side down.
• Would the use of
elephants in
war, against a
people who did
not have them,
be disproportionate means of
fighting?
• What
about the
use of
horses
against
foot
soldiers?
LEONARDO da Vinci
Rearing Horse
c. 1483-1498
• Could the use of
nuclear war-heads
against a country
who does not have
them ever be
justified as
‘proportionate
means’?
• For instance if Iran
was attacked by the
U.S., Britain and
Australia could this
justify Iran using
Nuclear Weapons in
reply?
ALTDORFER, Albrecht
T he Battle of Issus
1528-29
Goya: Shootings on 3rd of May.
• 1808-1814 The Spanish Peninsula War:
Napoleon’s French army in Spain
• On May 2nd 1808 French troops entered
Madrid and attacked civilians with knives.
• May 3rd In a savage reprisal, 400
Spaniards were executed – 45 on Principe
Pio hill (shown here).
• Is this justified – ‘The Righting of
Wrongs’?
• Was it ‘Proportionate’?
• What does Goya, a Spanish
artist, suggest are his
answers to these questions
in this painting?
Francisco de GOYA 1746-1828, THE THIRD OF MAY 1808
Jus in Bello
• The four Geneva Conventions of 1949, protect
war victims—
1. the sick and wounded;
2. the shipwrecked;
3. prisoners of war;
4. civilians in the hands of an adverse party
(and, to a limited extent, all civilians in
the territories of the countries in
conflict);
The Additional Protocols of 1977, which define key
terms such as combatants, contain detailed
provisions to protect non-combatants, medical
transports, and civil defence, and prohibit
practices such as indiscriminate attack.
Homer, Winslow
Prisoners from the Front
1866
• POW’s may not be made to work, must be fed,
given medical care and returned to their families.
Remington, Frederic
Missing
1899
• What ideas do you think lie behind the Geneva
convention on treatment of POW’s?
• Why do you think the Geneva convention is
contravened?
CIVILIANS
• In 1983 the Catholic Bishops said: ‘The
lives of innocent civilians may never be
taken directly. Regardless of the purpose
alleged for doing so’. The carpet bombing
by the Allies in the Second World War
would almost certainly be condemned.
• The key point here is the PRINCIPLE OF
DOUBLE EFFECT - ‘collateral damage’ is
permitted as the primary purpose of the
attack was not to kill, for instance,
innocents.
• Even if missiles go off target and civilians
are killed this is permissible provided the
civilians are not targetted.
THE PRINCIPLE OF DOUBLE EFFECT
• This raises problems.
• In the Gulf War, Iraqi generals placed
their command posts over schools so that
the Allied forces would have to kill the
children in order to destroy the Command
Posts.
• The question then arises whether the
killing of such civilians was a direct action
or not.
• Collateral damage is acceptable in modern
day just war thinking but it is an area that
raises uncomfortable questions.
BOMBING INFRASTRUCTURE
• Is it morally right to bomb water supplies and
power stations in war when these are used by the
military? It can be argued that this is permissible
as innocent civilians are not being targeted
directly.
– This was part of the policy of the Allies in the
Gulf War…. Few civilians may be killed by such
attacks but a country may be bombed back fifty
years by such actions.
• This is what happened in the first Gulf War in
Iraq where the destruction of Iraqi infrastructure
and subsequent sanctions have had a devastating
effect on the civilian population of Iraq.
– The question thus arises whether the attacks
on infrastructure can be regarded as morally
acceptable.
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT
• Madeleine Albright was the U.S. Secretary of
State under President Clinton and, in 1996,
she was asked whether she thought it was
‘worth it’ that 500000 young people under 15
had (according to an Oxfam report) died in
Iraq as a result of Allied bombing of
Infrastructure and subsequent sanctions. She
said that she thought it was worth it.
• This was to make a proportionate
decision balancing the aims of the
sanctions against the cost in terms
of innocent lives.
• MICHELANGELO
Dying Slave
1513-16
• Taking of women and slaves
was normal practice in war.
• Today the Geneva convention
forbids this.
• Rape has always been a
weapon of war, used against
civilian women.
• This continues to be the case.
• The Geneva convention does
not specifically forbid this.
• Rubens, Peter
Paul
The Rape of
the
Daughters
of Leucippus
c. 1618
Why do you think Rape is a weapon of war?
Poussin, Nicolas
The Rape of the Sabine Women
Lieut. Col Collins
• Extract from a speech by Lieut. Col Collins,
leading the British 1st Battalion, Royal Irish
regiment. 20th March 2003 speaking to his troops
in Kuwait immediately prior to the invasion or
Iraq:
• “If you are ferocious in battle, remember
to be magnanimous in victory. It is a big
step to take the life of another human
being. It is not to be done lightly….”
• “I know of men who have taken life
needlessly in other conflicts; I can assure
you that they live with the mark of Cain
upon them. If someone surrenders to you,
then remember they have the right in
international law and ensure that one day
they go home to their family.
Surrender
Velasquez
The
Surrender of
Breda
Before 1635
• Millais, John
The Order of Release,
1746
‘Ensure that one day they go
home to their families’
The place of the soldier
in war
• Homer, Winslow
Home, Sweet Home
1863
• This painting raises
the question of
what it is do be a
soldier.
• They often live like
animals in dirty
cramped
conditions.
• They are expected
to fight and kill
dispassionately.
• Then to return to
society.
Mark Chagall Soldiers
• Chagall
captures the dehumanising
effect of being a
soldier – the
person can
cease to exist
and only the
uniform is seen.
• The individual
may hide
behind the
uniform and the
orders.
• Fernand Leger:
Soldier
• The Geneva
convention
protects civilians
and POW’s.
• What about
soldiers? In some
wars the soldiers
are conscripts.
• Because they are
soldiers, they can
be killed.
• Lawrence, Jacob
War Series: Victory
1947
• The darkness and
pointlessness of war is
encapsulated in this
weary, black soldier, as
is the exploitation of the
foot soldier (many of
whom in the US at that
time were black).
• The anonymity of all
soldiers at all times, both
those who have died and
those who have come
back psychologicallyscarred, is expressed
through the hidden face
of the combatant.
• It looks as if dying leaves
are falling all around the
soldier. One of the most
striking features of the
painting, however, is its
title – ‘victory’.
• Kienholz’s ‘Portable War Memorial’ - Tryptique
• This piece of art mixed familiar artefacts with
disturbing elements. The familiar artefacts
include blackboard, flag, poster, restaurant
furniture, photographs, coca cola machine,
stuffed dog, and a tombstone.
• In the work, a group of US marines raise a flag,
as if it is a summer parasol, on a picnic table in a
diner that would have seemed very familiar to
Americans seeing this. Close to the figures, Kate
Smith sings ‘God Bless America’, and above their
heads is the famous Uncle Sam ‘I Want You’
poster.
• On the blackboard behind the table is a list of 475
countries that do not now exist because of war.
Inside the diner a smiling couple, with their backs
turned to the soldiers, sit and enjoy their coke.
The raising of the
flag on the table
recalls the
photograph of a
band of Marines
raising the US flag
on Mount Suriba-chi
in the Pacific island
of Iwo Jima.
The photograph was
used as a model for
the war memorial in
Washington DC.
In reality, the
picture was posed….
Three of the six who
raised the flag died on
the island shortly after
the picture was taken.
One of the survivors, Ira Hayes, was told at the White
House by President Truman that he was ‘an American
Hero’, a title that he himself refused to accept. ‘How
could I feel like a hero when only five men in my platoon
of 45 survived,’ he was quoted as saying, ‘when only 27
men in my company of 250 managed to escape death or
injury?’
Seven years after the war, at age of 32, Ira Hayes died a
broken and depressed man, after succumbing to a drink
problem.
• Kienholz’s piece of work was a protest
against his country’s involvement in
Vietnam. Americans had become
immune to the death and destruction
of war.
• Kienholz shows that the United States
was so tied up into a war mentality,
after the Second World War, the Korean
War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold
War, that the situation depicted in the
‘Portable War Memorial’ seemed normal.
• War had become part and parcel of everyday life –
photographs and TV pictures of soldiers were
commonplace, war posters were everywhere, and the
sound of patriotic songs was frequent. As this gung
ho mentality went on unabated, the average American
sat comfortably in the diner, drinking coke. By doing
so, they were implicated in the murder of young
soldiers and the loss of nations and countries.
Roy Lichenstein. BLAM. 1962
Roy Lichenstein. Takka Takka 1962
Lichtenstein, Roy
Whaam!
1963
These are famous works of art but they are
meant to show that modern warfare is quite
like playing computer games. The winner
will be the fastest player with the best
equipment. Boys with toys.