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Sara Van Goozen, Ph.D.
sara.vangoozen@york.ac.uk
Lecturer
University of York
About Me:
I am a lecturer in political philosophy at the University of York. My research interests are in global ethics, just war theory, animal rights and animal ethics, and global justice. My book "Distributing the Harm of Just Wars" is out with Routledge. I'm the general editor of the public philosophy blog Justice Everywhere.
Research Interests
Political Theory
Military Intervention
Terrorism
Just War Thinking
Ethics
Military Ethics
Law Of War
Animal Rights
Animal Welfare
Publications:
Journal Articles:
The academic debate on armed humanitarian intervention has, in the last 20 or so years, largely moved on from the question of whether it can sometimes be permissible to intervene in another state (i.e., whether there is a right to intervene), to questions regarding, for instance, the existence of a duty to intervene, the allocation of the responsibility to intervene, and so on. In this article, I will argue that if we pay attention to the context in which intervention normally takes place, we can see that the simple rescue cases often used in the literature to debate these questions are not very helpful, at least not in the way they are commonly used. Appropriately modified, rescue analogies help to clarify both the sense in which the duty to intervene falls on the international community, and suggest ways in which this duty can be acted upon.
Animals have been almost entirely absent from scholarly appraisals of the ethics of war. Just-war theory concerns when communities may permissibly resort to war; who may wage war; who they may harm in war; and what kinds of harm they may cause. Each question can be complicated by animals’ inclusion. After introducing just-war theory and the argument for an animal-inclusive just-war theory, this paper reviews ethical appraisals of war on animals’ behalf and wars against animals. It then turns to consider harm to and use of animals in war. It concludes by considering questions in the ethics of war beyond just-war theory as traditionally construed. Co-authored with Josh Milburn
War is harmful to animals, but few have considered how such harm should affect assessments of the justice of military actions. In this article, we propose a way in which concern for animals can be included within the just-war framework, with a focus on necessity and proportionality. We argue that counting animals in war will not make just-war theory excessively demanding, but it will make just-war theory more humane. By showing how animals can be included in our proportionality and necessity assessments, we provide a crucial first step towards developing an animal-inclusive account of just-war theory. Co-authored with Josh Milburn
Combatants who attempt to obey the laws of war often have to take considerable risks in order to effectively discriminate between legitimate and illegitimate targets. Sometimes this task is made even more complicated by systemic factors which influence their ability to discriminate effectively without unduly risking their lives or the mission. If they fail to do so, civilians often pay the price. In this paper, I argue that to the extent that non-combatants benefit from the attempt to fight justly, and to the extent that wars in which combatants attempt to fight justly can be understood as a system of social cooperation which produces both burdens and benefits, non-combatants have a responsibility to shoulder their fair share of these burdens. Thus, if combatants (and by extension enemy non-combatants) are disproportionately burdened in a conflict, non-combatants ought to take on some costs, for instance in order to reduce the strain imposed on combatants by systemic factors such as the availability and distribution of resources.
According to International Humanitarian Law and many writing on just war theory, combatants who foresee that their actions will harm or kill innocent non-combatants are required to take some steps to reduce these merely foreseen harms. However, because often reducing merely foreseen harms place burdens on combatants – including risk to their lives – this requirement has been criticised for requiring too much of combatants. One reason why this might be the case is that combatants have duties to each other and to their compatriots, such as duties to keep them safe, which are weighty enough to override their duties to foreign non-combatants. In this article, I argue that arguments against the requirement to limit merely foreseen harms which rely on combatants' associative duties fail to establish that it is permissible for combatants to prioritise their own safety over the reduction of merely foreseen harms. Although the argument based on associative duties might work in individual cases, factors peculiar to the situation of combatants mean that such justifications are not normally available to them.
Books Written:
This book argues that the risk of harm in armed conflict should be divided equally between combatants and enemy non-combatants. International law requires that combatants in war take ‘all feasible precautions’ to minimise damage to civilian objects, injury to civilians, and incidental loss of civilian life. However, there is no clear explanation of what ‘feasible precautions’ means in this context, or what would count as sufficiently minimised incidental harm. As a result, it is difficult to judge whether a particular war or offensive actually satisfies this requirement. Just war theorists often consider it common sense that merely not intending to harm innocent civilians is not sufficient, but there is little clarity in the literature regarding what this means. One crucial question that is almost always overlooked is that of what the appropriate baseline distribution of risk should be. This book defends the Minimal Harm Requirement (MHR), which states that combatants should make an effort to reduce merely foreseen harm to enemy non-combatants to the lowest reasonable level. In order to assess which risk impositions are reasonable, and which are not, an egalitarian baseline should be adopted, suggesting that other things being equal risk of harm should be distributed equally between just combatants and unjust non-combatants. This book will be of much interest to students of just war theory, ethics, security studies, and international relations.
Book Chapters:
The question of how to allocate scarce, life-saving medical resources is unavoidable in healthcare. Even under non-emergency conditions, hospitals and health officials have to deal with scarcity of many essential resources, such as donor organs. Sudden, largely unpredictable increases in scarcity of essential resources due to natural events (such as hurricanes, earthquakes or tsunamis) are a recurring reality in many places across the world. A global pandemic like COVID-19 further highlights the need to decide on fair and practicable methods of allocating scarce life-saving resources. In this chapter, I will first explain some of the key principles that need to be considered when deciding on a system for allocating extremely scarce medical resources in the context of a pandemic. I will focus on the allocation of resources necessary for treating the pandemic disease, such as ventilators, though much of what I say will also be applicable to other scarce medical resources. Subsequently, I will address one particularly controversial issue: should we give priority to those whose instrumental value is greater? I will suggest that in the context of pandemic disease, especially a disease such as COVID-19, it is appropriate to prioritise certain individuals on account of the roles they play in combating the disease.