Revision summary
Launching war needs just cause, last resort and lawful authority; continuation needs distinction, proportionality and truth. National interest does not erase civilian and global food harm. Constitutional morality binds power to the Constitution, as in the NCT Delhi reasoning of 2018. Conflict of interest is a private stake in a public duty; the remedy is recusal. Probity, humane digitalisation and devotion to duty complete the short notes.
Model answer
Introduction
Part (a) treats a war already months old when the paper was set, as a test of just cause, just means and civilian harm. Part (b) is five compact public-ethics notes, not essays.
Body
(a) Ethical issues in launching and continuing the Russia–Ukraine war
- Launching a war is an ethical act, not only a strategic one, because it decides who will be killed, displaced and impoverished.
- Just-war tradition asks a just cause, lawful authority, right intention, last resort, proportionality, and a reasonable chance of success. A war of conquest or of regime humiliation fails that test at the start.
- The United Nations Charter forbids the use of force against another State’s territorial integrity except in self-defence or with Security Council authority. That legal floor is also an ethical floor for States that claim a rules-based order.
- Continuation raises a second test: even a claim of initial grievance does not license endless bombardment of cities, energy and grain that civilians need.
- Discrimination: combatants and civilians must be distinguished. Targeting apartments, theatres, hospitals or using civilians as shields fails that duty on whichever side does it.
- Proportionality: military advantage cannot be bought at mass civilian death, famine risk, or nuclear brinkmanship.
- National interest, which many States invoked, is not a moral blank cheque. Interest that ignores another people’s right to exist is predation.
- Humanitarian ethics: refugees, prisoners of war, and grain corridors are duties under the Geneva Conventions, not favours.
- Truth: propaganda that denies atrocities, or that inflates them for recruitment, is itself an ethical failure because democratic consent to war is then based on a lie.
- Global spillover: inflation, fertilizer and food-price shocks hit people who never voted for either government. Continuation that treats those lives as externalities is unjust.
- Nuclear signalling for coercion is an ethical red line: it threatens species-level harm for a territorial aim.
- India’s own public line of dialogue and diplomacy is ethically stronger when it is consistent about civilian harm on all sides, not only about energy prices.
(b) Short notes
Constitutional morality
- Constitutional morality is the habit of holding public power to the Constitution’s values — liberty, equality, fraternity and due process — even when popular feeling or a majority wants otherwise. The Supreme Court in Government of NCT of Delhi v. Union of India (2018) treated it as a check on arbitrary power, not as a slogan.
Conflict of interest
- Conflict of interest is a situation where a public or professional duty can be bent by a private stake — kin, shares, a post-retirement job, or a gift. Ethics requires disclosure, recusal and refusal, not a claim that one can “manage” both loyalties in secret.
Probity in public life
- Probity is uprightness in office: honest money, impartial files, and no mixing of public power with private gain. It is essential to trust; without it, tenders, postings and data become a market.
Challenges of digitalization
- Digitalization speeds service and creates new harms: exclusion of those without devices, biometric failure, surveillance, data leaks, and automated refusal without a speaking order. The ethical duty is assisted access and a human appeal.
Devotion to duty
- Devotion to duty is professional completion of the lawful task, including inconvenient facts and the weakest claimant. It is not unlimited availability, not a lie for the boss, and not cruelty performed in the name of zeal.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD WAR[Launch and continue war] --> JC[Just cause last resort] WAR --> CIV[Distinguish civilians] WAR --> PROP[Proportionality] CM[Constitutional morality] --> CON[Constitution over crowd] COI[Conflict of interest] --> REC[Disclose and recuse] PR[Probity] --> TR[Public trust]
Conclusion
A war’s launch and its continuation are both answerable to just cause, civilian distinction, proportionality and truth. The five notes name the inner furniture of a republic: constitutional morality, clean interest, probity, humane digitalisation, and duty that is work rather than theatre.
Quick related
Students also ask
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(a) Whistle blower, who reports corruption and illegal activities, wrongdoing and misconduct to the concerned authorities, runs the risk of being exposed to grave danger, physical harm and victimization by the vested interests, accused persons and his team. What policy measures would you suggest to strengthen protection mechanism to safeguard the whistle blower? (b) In contemporary world, corporate sector's contribution in generating wealth and employment is increasing. In doing so, they are bringing in unprecedented onslaught on the climate, environmental sustainability and living conditions of human beings. In this background, do you Responsibility (CSR) is efficient and sufficient enough to fulfil the social roles and responsibilities needed in the corporate work mandated? Critically examine.
Next question in the 2022 paper (Q6). View answer →
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Does criticising a war’s ethics require taking one army’s side?
No. The tests of cause, means and civilian harm apply to whoever launches, continues or commits a prohibited method.
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Is constitutional morality the same as popular morality?
No. Popular morality can be majoritarian. Constitutional morality is the document’s values, including protection of the unpopular person.
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