Summary |
This volume is a complete collection of essays on leadership, ethics, and integrity. The contributors are distinguished men and women from different backgrounds. They discuss the ethics of leadership from a variety of perspectives- those of policy-makers, educators, military leaders, philosophers, jurists, and clergy.
Many of these essays discuss great leaders of the past and the moral decisions they faced. Several are very well known, such as Abraham Lincoln and his understanding of moral truths, and the controversial decision by the Allies to bomb civilian sites in Germany in World War II. Others present such little-known examples at the German general who disobeyed his superiors to save Paris from total destruction in World War II, and the young Air Force Second Lieutenant who died in action during his third consecutive tour of duty in Vietnam. Still others discuss gross ethical failures, such as ethnic cleansing in the Balkans.
Some essays explore how our predecessors in the Western traditions have framed these issues, offering us Aristotle’s views on virtue and the just-war tradition as it developed in the Church.
Another group of contributors offers hard-won lessons from personal experiences, making difficult decisions and observing the behavior of others when duty to an overarching, principle overrides a specific directive.
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