New on the Theory of the just War: The Turn to the Soldier and Questions of the War Morale

In Just War Theory, the leading paradigm is a normative assessment of war among nation states. As an effect of that perspective, the duties and obligations of soldiers as well as the issues of culpability have received only very little attention. Recently, philosophers have questioned this restriction in order to discuss war ethics from a different angle. Research now focuses on the single soldier's decisions on the battlefield and their moral assessment. This paper looks at the "criterion of liability" introduced by Jeff McMahan. It explains consequences of this new approach to war ethics, including the focus on reason-giving narratives. An interdisciplinary framework introduces recent historical findings on the single soldier's "morality". This paper argues that the shift of attention gives insight into the many facets of "morality" in the context of war.