An Article in this week's 9/11 Special Issue of The Lancet shows that, during deployment in Iraq, leader-led battlefield ethics training positively influenced soldiers' understanding of how to interact with and treat non-combatants, and reduced reports of ethical misconduct. It also increased soldiers' willingness to report fellow unit members for alleged misconduct. The Article is by Major Christopher Warner, Deputy Commander for Clinical Services, US Army Medical Activity, Fort Wainwright, Alaska, USA, and colleagues.
There have been a number of high profile breakdowns in the ethical conduct of soldiers towards non-combatants on the battlefield, and such breakdowns are of grave concern in war. To date, evidence-based strategies to deal with this issue are scarce. In this study, the authors assessed an ethics training programme based on video clips and leader-led discussions. The programme was tested about half way through a 15-month high-intensity combat deployment in Iraq in late 2007/early 2008. Soldiers from an infantry brigade combat team were randomly selected, and invited to complete an anonymous survey 3 months after completion of the training. Reports of unethical behaviour and attitudes in this sample were compared with a randomly selected pre-training sample from the same brigade.
Of 500 randomly selected soldiers, 421 agreed to participate in the anonymous post-training survey. A total of 397 soldiers of the same brigade completed the pre-training survey. Training was associated with significantly lower rates of self-reported unethical conduct of soldiers, and greater willingness to report and address misconduct than in those before training. Reports of unnecessary damage or destruction of private property decreased from 14% before training to 5% after training. Willingness to report a unit member for mistreatment of a non-combatant increased from 36% to 59%. Nearly all participants (97%) reported that the training made it clear how to respond towards non-combatants. Combat frequency and intensity was the strongest predictor of unethical behavior. However, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was not a significant predictor of unethical behaviour after controlling for combat experiences, breaking a myth that PTSD is a cause of unethical conduct.
The authors say that their findings can inform ongoing training initiatives worldwide and provide military leaders with key information as they continue to maintain a high ethical and professional climate in combat. They conclude: "Our findings have important implications for how military leaders prepare their forces for military operations ranging from peacekeeping to combat… Our study is the first published study to provide both potential methods for preventing unethical conduct and associated factors for unethical battlefield conduct. Emphasis should be placed on training those with high levels of combat exposure, and should include experientially-based leader-led discussions."
In a linked Comment, Dr Jennifer Leaning and Dr Michael Lappi, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA, say: "The US military has become a conventional force of unconventional warriors. Every soldier is now tasked with the dual responsibility of combat actions and civil affairs, often in the same region and on the same day. So although the emphasis on top down leadership, to drive unit discipline and adherence to norms, still applies, much greater responsibility is now placed on the individual soldier to make immediate and difficult moral decisions independently."
They conclude: "To assess whether this intervention proves to be durable and effective requires further research. Other interventions, such as raising the selection bar for military service and reducing deployment frequency and duration, also warrant consideration. However, soldiers deployed in counter-insurgency operations will always need to fall back on their own capacity, buttressed by sound training, for resilient and nuanced legal and moral choice."
To interview Major Christopher Warner, Deputy Commander for Clinical Services, US Army Medical Activity, Fort Wainwright, Alaska, USA, please contact Maria L. Tolleson, Public Affairs Office U.S. Army Medical Command/Office of the Surgeon General T) +1 703 681-1166 E) maria.tolleson@us.army.mil
Dr Jennifer Leaning, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. T) +1 617-432-0656 E) jleaning@hsph.harvard.edu
Dr Michael Lappi, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. T) +1 617-384-5661 E) Mdlappi@aol.com
Journal
The Lancet