1st Edition

Politics and the General in Supreme Command Law Reform and Averting Unjust War

By Richard Adams Copyright 2025
176 Pages
by Routledge

176 Pages
by Routledge

176 Pages
by Routledge

This book argues for reform of the convention that, when politicians decide on a course of action, the general in supreme command obeys without question. The entire spread‑out chain of command is unified in the general, who offers the only connection between the military and politics. Offering the sole connection between the military and politics, only the general can turn political directions... Read more

1 Introduction

2 What’s Been Said – Scholarship has Paid Insufficient Attention to the General

3 Law and War – Law Cannot Capture War’s Moral Complexity

4 Liberalism and Law – The Risk in Law’s Overstatement

5 Conscience – Some Things will be Morally Impossible

6 For All of Us, As One of Us – The General is Equal as a Citizen

7 More Than a Postman – The General’s Singular Burden

8 Let the General Say No – Moral Space in the Shadow of Law

9 Conclusion

Biography

Richard Adams is a commander in the Royal Australian Navy. He has doctorates from the University of Western Australia and the University of New South Wales. He was an Australian Fulbright scholar to Yale University and a visiting research fellow to the Changing Character of War programme at the University of Oxford.

'Sometimes problems are disagreeable, and it is impossible to do as one would wish. But law should offer an opportunity to decide, to act responsibly with the best intention. Speaking of the supreme command, Adams makes this case clearly.'

Vice Admiral Tim Barrett, AO, CSC, Royal Australian Navy (ret’d) Chief of Navy 2014–2018