TEACHING MILITARY ETHICS IN THE ROMANIAN MILITARY EDUCATION ESTABLISHMENTS
TEACHING MILITARY ETHICS IN THE ROMANIAN MILITARY EDUCATION ESTABLISHMENTS

Summary/Abstract: Teaching military ethics as an independent discipline in the Romanian military higher educational institutions may prove a conundrum. Some of the reasons for this are rooted in the dominant cultural background and religious inheritance of the Romanian people and in the ethos and culture of the Romanian military. In addition, the research focused on this topic in Romania is rather scarce and conducted mainly by Romanian scientists at an individual level rather than at a collaborative or cooperative one. All of the above have an important say in the attitude of those who take various educational programs, as well as in trainers’/educators’ struggle to fi nd the best approach towards such a topic. This article aims at highlighting the main challenges and opportunities raised for both researchers and educators who are keen on addressing military ethics as a subject matter in the Romanian higher military education establishments. The method to be employed is an AS IS analysis of the status military ethics has in the curricula of various Romanian military higher educational establishments. The educational offering under scrutiny concerns the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate studies offered by the “Carol I” National Defense University, by the service academies: “Henri Coanda” Air Force Academy, “Mircea cel Batran” Naval Forces Academy, “Nicolae Balcescu” Land Forces Academy, as well as by departments like the Regional Department of Defense Resources Management conducting postgraduate career courses. The analysis will be based on information from open sources. Given the terminological variations of the term ’ethics’, as well as the likelihood for certain training/educational programs not to explicitly include the term in their curricula, we will center the scope of the investigation on the way the principles guiding militaries’ ethical behavior included in the Code of Conduct for Romanian Military And Civil Personnel[1] presented in the Order of the Minister of National Defense no. M94 of 8.06.2004 are included in the curricula of the aforementioned educational programs. Apart from these guiding variables, we will also critically analyze the match between the goals and objectives of the subject matters listing ethical issues, the methods chosen to teach these (i.e. “formal classes in moral philosophy”, case studies, motivational speakers, role models, etc. (Robinson et all: 2008, 9-10), their target audience and the level of education. In the end, based on the findings we will make a set of recommendations concerning the steps that could be taken towards teaching ethics as an individual subject matter on various educational programs within the Romanian military.

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