Author ORCID Identifier
0009-0008-9482-812X
Faculty Sponsor
Therese Cingranelli
Abstract
This paper argues that modern warfare operates through an ethical infrastructure that enables, rather than restrains, the use of violence. Contrary to the common assumption that moral frameworks such as Just War Theory function as safeguards against harm, the historical record shows that ethical language, humanitarian rhetoric, and democratic narratives serve as mechanisms to legitimize intervention, manufacture consent, and naturalize civilian suffering. Through case studies including Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, U.S.-backed coups in Latin America, and French intervention in Mali, the paper traces how political leaders, media institutions, and corporate actors frame war as a moral necessity while pursuing strategic and economic objectives. These cases reveal a structural pattern: ethical claims precede intervention, empirical outcomes contradict moral promises, and yet the moral narrative persists. This persistence is sustained through what the paper describes as institutional amnesia, in which each new conflict is rhetorically severed from its predecessors so that past failures do not undermine present justifications. Ethics thus becomes cyclical rather than corrective, functioning as a renewable resource that allows war to be continually reframed as exceptional, urgent, and humanitarian.
Alongside this discursive process is an economic system in which war generates profit for defense contractors, reconstruction firms, and privatized security companies. The military-industrial complex, post-conflict reconstruction industries, and private military contractors form material incentives that reinforce ethical narratives and ensure the continuity of intervention. Taken together, these political, economic, and ethical systems demonstrate that modern war is not simply fought with weapons, but with ideas: moral vocabulary and humanitarian language become tools of governance that render violence acceptable, profitable, and repeatable. The paper concludes that ethical war is not a contradiction, but a system—one that depends on the replication of ethical narratives to sustain political legitimacy and economic gain.
Citation Style
Chicago
Recommended Citation
Udov, K. (2026). The Institutional Production of Ethical War Across Modern Conflict. Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal, 11(2). Retrieved from https://orb.binghamton.edu/alpenglowjournal/vol11/iss2/10
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