Nuclear ethics for strategists & policymakers
Hehir, J. Bryan
THE BOOK OF WISDOM says there is Church/world watch cal principles, of pursuing both a season for all things. It...
...In May 1983, the Catholic Nuclear ethics: assessing policy in terms of "motives, Bishops issued their pastoral on nuclear means, and consequences...
...680, three view of non-combatant immunity than for arguments against an effort which times...
...It would philosophical and theological assessappear that the spring is the sea- ments of the nuclear dilemma, and, fison when statements blossom on nu- nally, of formulating his own grid for clear policy...
...tle on" about the damage done to popula- Faculty: Donald Senior, Carolyn Osiek, tion centers by only 161 warheads...
...He hews a policy...
...strategy...
...884002, Walled Lake, Ml 48088...
...of Nuclear Ethics" are: (1) self-defense how the moral assessment of the Catho- Twenty years ago the moral questions in a just but limited cause (i.e., it can lic bishops relates to the moral conclu- about nuclear policy were no less ur- justify a deterrence policy but not every sions of the Methodist bishops and gent, but, no one with Nye's policy deterrence policy...
...scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Director, High Frontier Religious Community Ethics and research professor of ethics and international politics at the School Community living emphasizing individual The author replies: of Foreign Service at Georgetown...
...My article was devoted to show- ment to worship, support and stimulate in this technical dispute...
...may and disarray in the nuclear freeze tlety of General Graham's statement that movement...
...not be duplicated here...
...be built on anything less than truth...
...Still the ible the United States is morally obliged issue of The New Republic, Leon Wieselauthors are convinced that "if history, to adopt them...
...It is easy to Press, $14.95...
...But he greatly enhancing the offensive ele- and Owls: An Agenda for Avoiding Nu- moves beyond analysis and critique of ments of the U.S...
...In essence these ministers, priests, terminal phase defenses...
...We style and substance of Nye's argument...
...monthly in advance for more demand the restructuring of U.S...
...2) never treat nuwhere the new committee of the USCC, background engaged the ethics and pol- clear weapons as normal weapons...
...administration did either...
...Contact brief reply (and only a brief one...
...We are talking on Safeguarding the Creation about nuclear war, not a shooting gallery at Correspondence score where all but 161 out of 10,000 Dayspring Retreat Center looks great...
...Classified difference requires further changes in Mr...
...Gary Martinez, Box 105, Hico, WV 25854...
...SDI as a "non-nuclear" defense, ignorThousands of clergymen of all faiths ing the plans for nuclear-explosionhave signed a declaration of support for driven X-ray lasers and nuclear-armed THE COMPANY AT SDI...
...Write: Sister functioning society, or worse...
...deterrent relate to the clear War...
...The value of Nye's book lies registering disagreements at the maranalysis of morality and strategy...
...Russett was part of that movement, U.S...
...3) constituted to assess the conditional ac- icy debate in a book-length study...
...the debate about the future of deter- ousness...
...These credentials establish...
...They would destroy us as a Fuller, Joseph Cunneen...
...nuclear defense reflects the general dis- Most readers will appreciate the subP.S...
...But these cler- ing that, on the contrary, SDI would bear inward/outward journeys cutting across all gymen properly insist that pursuit of all the moral burdens of MAD...
...Madison Ave., NYC 10016...
...The scope of may well be entering a period which The growing saliency of "the moral what he attempts guarantees him plenty will resemble the late 1950s as a time of factor" has produced a number of ar- of critics, but the standard of argument fundamental conceptual development guments about the moral quality of dif- he sets will make criticism a demanding about nuclear policy...
...to grind...
...Gen., USA (Ret...
...sponsibility for non-proliferation pol- distinct service in disciplining the deCareful observers of the nuclear de- icy...
...Bryan Hehir is senior research Lt...
...ferent strategic proposals...
...tier, no particular friend of-the bishops' philosophy, and theology teach us any- I can only surmise that Mr...
...Modern/ policymakers will have to read his book...
...May 1986 began with the J. Bryan Hehir consequences of adhering absolutely to pastoral letter of the United Methodist the logic of principle, and criticizing Bishops asserting that the policy of de- center of nuclear strategy as an aca- those in the policy community who terrence should not receive the blessing demic analyst and an actor in the policy think one can override the claims of of the church, and it closed with the process...
...tion, and that if such defenses prove feas- and still-vulnerable cities...
...Nye plays out the implications of rence in its strategic and moral dimen- More significant, of course, is the each principle in a manner which cansions is headed into a new phase...
...spiritual growth and Christian ministry General Graham's letter deserves a rooted in critical social analysis...
...discarding the the way he has systematically outlined justifiable manner...
...Russell's pastoral letter, also showed how SDI thing, then it is that no lasting peace can ill-disguised fury at the concept of non- would "celestialize" MAD...
...4) ceptance of deterrence, will move...
...It would boundaries...
...Russett parrots all the anti-SDI arexposed the false dilemma posed by the guments presented by the Soviet Church/world watch "Freeze or Fry" slogan, and utterly de- Union...
...he does not consider that "acceptable damage," and I did not say the Reagan AL FRITSCH, S.J...
...and (5) reduce reliance on nuclear in a column, but they do illustrate that engages policy analysts with this seri- weapons over time...
...I am glad Miriam Ward...
...Personal/Convalescent use...
...THE BOOK OF WISDOM says there is Church/world watch cal principles, of pursuing both a season for all things...
...Crosstones, Box (J...
...target- most everyone who has no political axe than three times...
...the United States does not plan to abide puty Under Secretary of State in the If Nye had only written the first half by the criteria of the unratified SALT II Carter Administration with special re- of Nuclear Ethics it would have been a agreement...
...He refuses to let fense Initiative, aimed at rendering nu- either side off easily, pressing the arclear weapons "impotent and obso- chitects of moral principle about the lete...
...I find myself persuaded by the My purpose here is limited to rec- conclusions run in very different di- basic thrust of Nye's position, while ommending a sterling resource for the rections...
...64¢, six times...
...The first half of the ond and third maxims...
...The book is important book is an essay about moral reasoning...
...BRUCE M. RUSSETT stroyed the notion that the nuclear freeze (Continued from page 363) movement held the moral high ground...
...Classified payable Nye, but his proposal is radical enough to makes common and ethical sense to al- with order...
...He freely grants - in contrast to the message of the famous rainbow televi- Biblical Institute sion cartoon - that SDI can provide no 21st Biblical Institute, Trinity College, Bur"impenetrable shield," and says I "rat- lington, VT 05401, June 15-20, 1986...
...His "Five Maxims SALT II limits...
...Wait list only...
...COMMONWEAL, 232 ing policy...
...It is first in the way he establishes a gin.Joseph Nye's new book appropriately framework for assessing the spectrum Particularly important are Nye's secentitled Nuclear Ethics (The Free of moral arguments...
...Nye has been at the sequentialist arguments vs...
...He is a co-author of the Harvard bate between ethicists and strategists, bate raise questions about how the ad- study Living with Nuclear Weapons between the citizens' questions and the ministration's policy of the 1980s for and a subsequent study Hawks, Doves policymakers' explanations...
...Washington, D.C...
...In brief, Nye has joined ethics and One can only hope that the bishops get Cassettes strategy in a way which guarantees that a less-biased and more knowledgeable ethicists, strategists, citizens, and "principal consultant" next time around Biblical Meditation Songs...
...For more information: non-nuclear defenses is morally superior reinforce rather than replace MAD, by Anthony Ciccariello to continued reliance on nuclear destruc- strengthening incentives to target soft 520 W. Gray St...
...The moral task...
...I hold a more absolute and now joins it again in groping wildly RATES: 75¢ a word, one time...
...He is a Professor of Govern- moral principles with easy appeals to Reagan administration announcing that ment at Harvard, and he served as De- "realism...
...Continued from page 354) Graham provides a benign image of August 15-17, 1986 -~jthreatening their obliteration...
...I sup- Roland Murphy, Bruce Metzger, Reginald pose I do...
...The president's SDI program "Mr...
...It was also in the spring of 1983 for strategists complex line, balancing the rigorous that President Reagan opened a new theoretical logic of the moralists and the chapter in the strategic policy debate & policymakers often less than logical choices which with his proposal for the Strategic De- face policymakers...
...the arguments of others to his recompresident's push to move away from his status in the secular policy debate, mendations for shaping nuclear policy offensive forces, and how either objec- but the interesting feature of this book is in a stragetically coherent and morally tive is served by the U.S...
...agree in principle that nuclear weapons because of who Nye is, what he says, Nye has not retreated from the unenvi- are not like other weapons, but shaping and where his work fits in the ethics and able task of probing the logic of con- policy which reflects this qualitative strategy debate...
...sign of how the public debate has reduce risks of nuclear war in the near These questions are not easily answered shifted that the ethical question now term...
...Other observers ask and entered the ethical argument...
...It is a minimize harm to innocent people...
...Original...
...KIRKRIDGE and rabbis note that technological argu- My "fury" is directed precisely at the Celebrating our 10th year ments abound, pro and con, on the SDI pretense that SDI is morally superior to Are you looking for a way to be yourself & still be Church...
...on the pastoral letter...
...Join us in our 10 year experiissue, and the signers assume no expertise MAD...
...deontologi- (Continued on page 383) 20 June 1986: 363 the face of war and violence...
...J. BRYAN HEHIR DANIEL 0. GRAHAM Hour cassette: $6.50...
...In the May 12 Elmira, NY 14905 20 June 1986: 383...
Vol. 113 • June 1986 • No. 12
