Core 10 – Modern Warfare – Spring 2013 – Dr. Pfaff

Class:     Tuesdays, 6:00 - 8:30 p.m. in C109

                                                                                                                  Office Hours:      MTWF 11:00 – 11:50

                                                                                                                                                    Tu 5:00 – 5:50

                                                                                                                                            (and by appointment)

                                                                                                                           Office:                          S 304A

                                                                                                                           Phone:                       866-6380

This seminar will explore some of the ethical issues involved in modern warfare, including ethics, weapon systems, tactics, cultural issues, and where future threats may lie.  You don’t need to know much about war at the beginning of the term; we will work on that as we go.

The required texts for the course are available at the College Store:

Christopher Panza & Adam Potthast, Ethics for Dummies, Wiley, 2010.

David Whetham, ed., Ethics, Law and Military Operations, Palgrave/Macmillan, 2011.

COVERAGE

The material will be covered on or about the dates indicated below.  If warranted, this schedule may be revised as the semester progresses.  Students may propose specific topics they want to make sure we cover.

ITEMS FOR GRADING

The following activities will take place or be due at the times stated above.

Your grade will be determined from the sum of your scores on the graded work.  You are responsible for top­ics covered in the texts, even if they are not covered in class.  You are also responsible for topics covered in class, even if they are not covered in the texts.

We will begin developing topics for research papers early in the semester.  Many of the nuts-and-bolts items are ad­dressed at the end of this outline.  The paper is to be an exploration of your own values on an important issue in today’s world.  Not only will I try to keep you on task by calling for two proposals and a rough draft of your research paper, you should reflect on your topic often.  On the rough draft, I will primarily be reading for content and organization of your work.  I will also mark spelling and grammar errors when I notice them.  However, eliminating typos and grammar and spelling errors from your final draft is entirely your responsibility.

On the subject of the research paper, I have been seeing more plagiarism in the past several years or so and, frankly, I'm getting mad.  Therefore, you will submit your research paper to www.turnitin.com; there is no need to turn a paper copy in to me.  We will discuss this as submission time approaches. (Class ID: xxxxxxxx, Class password: yyyyyy)

The library time referred to in the schedule above needs clarification.  I do not mean that we will meet in the library for those five class periods.  Rather, class will meet only if needed during that time.  Instead, we will all spend a lot of time in the library.  Not only will you be working on your own in the library, but I will work individually with each of you to ensure you find all the relevant information for your paper.

In addition to turning in the research paper, you are required to give an oral presentation on your paper to the class and potentially to outside referees.  Your presentation is to last 20 minutes (you will be penalized for deviating greatly from the 20 minutes) with a few minutes for ques­tions.  As this is the capstone course in your education at Saint Joe, this presentation is to be formal.  As such, think of it as your first big presentation at your new job.  That includes visual aids, such as PowerPoint, overheads, slides, and/or handouts.  It also includes getting dressed up (As in ties (pulled up with top shirt button buttoned) for the gents and skirts or dresses for the ladies.  Capris and “hip-huggers” are not professional dress.  Suits are always acceptable…).

The 1-pagers are due each week stated above.  You are to look for an article in the popular press (news magazines, science magazines, etc.) dealing with an ethical issue associated with warfare and write a short summary of it and a personal commentary on it (minimum one page, hence the term 1-pager).  The only acceptable newspaper is the Wall Street Journal.  No WWW pages may be used, with the exception of those web pages offering electronic ver­sions of print articles.  The key here is that the article needs to have been subjected to editorial control or peer review.  The 1-pager may be hand written but put it on decent, untorn, 8½” x 11” paper.  Attach a photocopy of the article to it.  Note: MSNBC, CNN, and similar sites are not newsmagazines.

Attendance in class is essential for making this a successful course.  Therefore, you may miss 2 classes during the semester without any penalty.  The only limitation is that you cannot take a free day if you are scheduled to present to the class.  For more than 2 absences, your course grade will be docked 4% per missed day.  For example, if you miss 5 days of class during the semester, 2 are “free,” and the other 3 will result in a 12% reduction in your semester point total.

The grade cut-offs are below.  The percentage cut-offs apply to the graded activities as well as to the final grade.

Exams are to be taken at the scheduled times; 1-pagers are to be turned in at the beginning of the class period on the due date.  Papers going to turnitin will be due at 11:59 p.m. Rensselaer time on the due date.   Late papers will be docked 10% of their value for each day (or fraction thereof) they are late, starting at the due time; therefore, a 1-pager that is 1 hour late will be docked 10%, after 6:00 the next day, the penalty is 20%, etc.  If a conflict arises which prevents completing a task at the scheduled time, I may, at my discretion, give an extension.  Requests for extensions must be made prior to the start of the scheduled due time.  A telephone message is sufficient.  Requests made after the scheduled due time will not be considered.  Also, it is my policy not to ap­prove dropping the course after the College’s drop date.

I trust I don’t have to belabor the issues of academic honesty.  You are about to enter the professional world where absolute honesty is expected.  And, after all, this is an ethics class!  Nevertheless, if I become aware of any breech in academic honesty, your score on the effected task will be reduced to a zero and your work may be turned over to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

If you are a student with a disability, kindly meet with me immediately to discuss the accommodations you will need during class activities, examinations, and out of class assignments in order to participate fully and demonstrate your abilities.

Feel free to keep your scores in the spaces provided below so you can always tell where you stand in the course.

Exam 1______________________

Exam 2______________________

1-Pager 1_____________________

1-Pager 2_____________________

1-Pager 3_____________________

1-Pager 4_____________________

1-Pager 5_____________________

Participation _________________

Presentation __________________

Research Paper________________

Ethics Resources – Here is a list of ethics sites on the World Wide Web.  It’s obviously not exhaustive, but these contain a wealth of information and links to still more sites.  I have tried to use only “authoritative” sites, but, as always, use some caution in accepting everything you read.  I have these entered as links on my webpage, http://www.saintjoe.edu/~pfaff/, so you can just click and go rather than typing them in.  There is some overlap with a list kept by Fr. McFarland on his webpage.

These links were checked on December 10, 2012.