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Military refusers and the invocation of conscience: Relational subjectivities and the legitimation of liberal war

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2019

Maja Zehfuss Open the ORCID record for Maja Zehfuss [Opens in a new window]
Maja Zehfuss*
Affiliation:
School of Sciences, The University of Manchester
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

During the Iraq War, some US soldiers refused (re)deployment. While liberal states appear to protect individuals’ right not to fight against their moral convictions by allowing the right to conscientious objection, those whose objections do not align with the regulations have to break the law in order to follow their convictions. This article explores how the legitimation of liberal war is challenged when we listen to the stories such refusers tell. Focusing on the United States, it briefly sets out the normative context such soldiers faced, highlighting the distinction between permissible conscientious objectors and contemptible deserters. Drawing on Judith Butler, it then focuses on two refusers by reading their own accounts of themselves in their memoirs. Despite not being eligible under the regulations, both invoke their conscience to make their refusal intelligible. By listening to their detailed accounts, the article traces the production and disruption of their subjectivities in relation to the prevailing moral order. Although invoking conscience appears to provide the chance to embrace an authentic self in a bid to resist the problematic moral order, subjectivity remains fractured due to relationality. Put differently, the sovereign subjectivity required by liberal war is simultaneously undermined by it.

Keywords

WarConscienceRefusingEthicsResponsibilityRelationality
Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , October 2019 , pp. 569 - 587
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 2019 

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References

1 ‘Soldiers’ refers to military service personnel in all branches here.

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23 DoD, Instruction 1300.06, section 3.2.

24 Ibid., section 3.5.1.

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28 Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), Article 85, available at: {http://www.ucmj.us/}.

29 Unauthorised Absence in the Navy.

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31 UCMJ, Article 85.

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67 Ibid., p. 160.

68 Ibid., p. 161.

69 Ibid., p. 173.

70 Ibid., pp. 173–4.

71 Ibid., p. 174.

72 Ibid., p. 206.

73 Ibid., p. 77.

74 Ibid.

75 Ibid., p. 213.

76 Ibid., p. 220.

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84 Ibid., p. 48.

85 Ibid., pp. 56–7.

86 Ibid., p. 134.

87 Ibid., pp. 69–70.

88 Ibid., p. 71.

89 Ibid., p. 75.

90 Ibid., p. 7.

91 Ibid., p. 66.

92 Ibid., p. 134.

93 Ibid., p. 98.

94 Ibid., p. 105.

95 Ibid., p. 108.

96 Ibid., p. 108.

97 Ibid., p. 109.

98 Ibid., p. 110.

99 Ibid., pp. 187–8.

100 Ibid., p. 189.

101 Ibid., p. 190.

102 Ibid., p. 193.

103 Ibid., p. 44.

104 Ibid., p. 205.

105 Ibid., p. 1.

106 Ibid., p. 2.

107 Ibid., p. 1.

108 Ibid quoted in Laufer, The Soldiers Who Say No, p. 4.

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125 See, for example, Cohen, ‘Conscientious objection’, pp. 276–9; Robinson, ‘Integrity and selective conscientious objection’; Minear, ‘Conscience and carnage in Afghanistan and Iraq’, p. 150. For a detailed discussion of selective objection, see Kent Greenawalt, ‘All or nothing at all: the defeat of selective conscientious objection’, The Supreme Court Review (1971), pp. 31–94.

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128 Robinson, ‘Integrity and selective conscientious objection’, p. 34, reports this common view with which he disagrees.

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131 Ibid., p. 205.

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152 Ibid., p. 12.

153 Ibid., p. 136.