No Means Analysis

The integration of the external Jus in Bello rule of No Means “mala in se” into military operations has the long term benefit of covering most of the essential human rights and Law of Armed Conflicts, despite of the magnitude of the involved forces or the technology of the weapons used. As the short-term challenge of its integration, this implies a high level of education to get a critical evaluation of the conduct of soldiers at war. According to the definition of means “mala in se”, these methods are evil by themselves. This implies that soldiers can identify them intuitively, disregarding of their cultural mindset. Additionally, this is independent of the magnitude of the war. Technology of the weapons does not affect the fact of what …show more content…
However, this kind of weapon is unable to discriminate combatants from civilians. In addition, once it is installed the destructive effect can happen even long time after the war is finished, so it is not restricted to the time lapse of the conflict. Finally, it is the equivalent of killing of mutilating a person randomly chosen most of the times in a poor country. The Ottawa Convention banned landmines, as part of the role that institutions play in the world order. Consequently, new ways to negate access to the enemy should be used and new surveillance technologies are necessary but there is a clear message about something that no longer can be part of the military strategy. Intuitively the landmines are “mala in se”, however its effectiveness as a terror weapon made it popular. Then, the pressure of the society due to its proven effects removed it from the military arsenals. With this example appears one of the main challenges of the integration of the “mala in se” …show more content…
Most of this means, even when the directives of the commanders prohibit them explicitly, can be used for military men at the tactical level as retaliation for the damaged suffered. In the end is an individual decision under a high stress, where moral limits can be easily overpassed. That makes necessary a high level of education on topics as moral and ethics to all the military levels. A lot of critical evaluation of human conduct during different kinds of war is useful to understand why this means are used. Along the history, violence against the vanquished had no limits, and most of the time the quest of psychological effects to weak his will to fight resulted in use of evil means against civilian population. Cases like the Rape of Nankin by Japanese during World War II or the live broadcasting of public executions by ISIL are just two of many examples along history, where is it possible to argue that soldiers followed orders from higher levels. But the human rights violations to the war prisoners in Abu Ghraib was one case where the soldiers probably received formal education without internalizing the deep concept of mala in se and the lack of controls resulted in the use of unnecessary