An Ethics of Interrogation

by Michael Skerker

The act of interrogation, and debate over its use, pervade our culture, whether through fictionalized depictions in movies and television or discussions of real-life interrogations on the news. But despite daily mentions of the practice in the media, there is a lack of informed commentary on its moral implications. Moving beyond the narrow focus on torture that has characterized most work on the subject, An Ethics of Interrogation is the first book to fully address this complex issue.

In doing so Michael Skerker confronts a host of philosophical and legal issues, from the right to privacy and the privilege against compelled self-incrimination to prisoner rights and the legal consequences of different modes of arrest, interrogation, and detention. These topics raise serious questions about the morality of keeping secrets and the differences between state power at home and abroad. Thoughtful consideration of these subjects leads Skerker to specific policy recommendations for law enforcement, military, and intelligence professionals.

257 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Spicy T AKA Mr. Tea · Rating 1 out of 5]

Writing from a deontological perspective, this book is in parts. Part 1 is a legal/philosophical attempt at justifying non-coercive interrogation within hypothetical frameworks and thought experiments that focus on democratic, just society/government. To me, these hypotheticals are irrelevant because they do not exist, but they are thought experiments that he asks us to participate in while getting as close as he can to saying this is how it is now--in the real world. In part 2 he attempts to justify non-coercive interrogation methods in wars and the best way to classify people in war so that they are treated in a way that preserves them as people but also as subjects to be interrogated. Skerker does not glorify torture and in that last chapter he uses consequentialism to deconstruct the necessity to torture someone in a ticking bomb scenario (Dershowitz loves ticking time bomb thought games).

This book really annoyed me. Part 1 uses premises that are not true for many people in the US and around the world. So, aside from his legal/philosophical thought experiments, there does not seem to be a whole lot of applicability. In the second part, he seems to make better points regarding the categorization of people in war zones, the need to classify people as POWs and the need to not go into coercive methods/torture when demanding information from people classed as oppositional.

He uses Iraq and Afghanistan in a lot of examples. He never raises the question of the grave breach of international law that allowed the invasion and occupation of two countries by the US (and its meager "allies") let alone the numerous bombings and killing of civilians. He picks up after that question is answered by the criminal acts conducted by the administrations of Bush and Obama--not to speak of all the other war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by other US administrations going back to the Second World War. So, since that question is answered, whatever moral conundrum he may have felt is removed. He can go forward without questioning, which makes me question why the hell he would write a book in the first place?

In conclusion, if a professor at the Naval Academy is not going to be honest with the reader about his biases, refuses to touch on the grave breaches of human rights and international law and then writes a book about interrogation after the fact--a gnat buzzing in the faces of the administrations that have conducted torture and other horrendous violations in which he admonishes them and tells them non-coercion is the way to go--not to mention all the other violations perpetrated in war, then Michael Skerker appears to be enduring a prolonged delusional state and any writing of his should be disregarded until such time that he gains the moral fortitude to write something worthwhile, oppositional, and not delusional.

[امیرمحمد حیدری · Rating 1 out of 5]

این کتاب توسط نشر نو با عنوان «اخلاق بازجویی» به‌چاپ رسیده است. موضوعیت آن، هیچ ارزشی ندارد. هیچ‌کس برای چنین مسئله‌ای تره خرد نمی‌کند، چرا که از کاربردیت به دور است. به‌نظر من، بازجویی، از صفر تا صدش، فاقد ثغور است.

[University of Chicago Magazine]

Michael Skerker, AM’99, PhD’04
Author

From our pages (May–June/10): "Torture is not the only morally problematic element of interrogation, even if it is the most commonly studied or a popular television story line. Skerker, an assistant professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, explores other philosophical and legal issues, including the right to privacy and prisoner rights, making policy recommendations for those who work directly with prisoners."