Ethical Analysis of Australian Government's Contract with EOS

This article provides an ethical analysis of the Australian Federal Government's contract with weapon manufacturing company EOS and its implications on war crimes. The analysis is based on utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, and virtue ethics.

BUSINESS ETHICS

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The term “ethics” refers to the collective guidelines that are comprised of the legal
rules, moral principles and generic virtues that guide the behaviour of the individuals in
various scenarios (Kagan, 2018). Over the years, different experts have provided a range of
ethical theories that are broadly divided into two groups, namely the consequentialist and the
non-consequentialist ethical theories. While the previous focusses on the overall outcome
from the ethical point of view, the latter is centred on the actions irrespective of the outcome.
The following work has been prepared with the objective of exploring the various facets of
the ethics in relation to the accusations on the Australian Federal Government in granting
license to a weapon manufacturing company to the countries accused of war crimes.
Therefore the said topic would be evaluated in the light of the utilitarian and Kantian theories.
Further, an additional theory namely the virtue ethics would also be used for the further
elaboration of the topic.
PART 1
Lately the Australian Federal Government had granted the license to the company
Electro Optic Systems (EOS) that further has a business agreement with the US arms
manufacturer Orbital ATK. Thus, the said deal between the Australian Federal Government
and the EOS has been in light because the same represents an indirect business relationship
with the country of Saudi Arabia which has been repeatedly accused of committing war
atrocities on the neighbouring country of Yemen (Welch, Taylor & Trigger, 2019). Does the
central point of the following evaluation if whether the said action on the part of the Federal
Government falls within the purview of the ethical principles or not. Utilitarianism is one of
the most persuasive moral theories. The theory of the utilitarianism is a version of
consequentialism and centres around the consequence of an action to measure the
righteousness or the wrongness in the same. The utilitarian’s hold the belief that the chief
objective of morality is to enhance the amount of good and useful objects in the society and
make life better in the world and thereby reduction of the amount of bad things such as
unhappiness (Mulgan, 2014). On application of the principle of the utilitarianism on the given
case, the following points are noteworthy.
The father of the utilitarianism Jeremy Bentham had developed the theory by the
adoption of the view called hedonism. Further hedonism states that the thing which is good in
itself is happiness/pleasure. The value of the pleasure or happiness is further characterised by
production of the well-being or diminishing of the ill-being. In the given circumstances, it is

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significant to note that the war atrocities committed by the country of Saudi Arabia are well
known in Yemen. The said Saudi-led war acts have lately been facing the harshest criticism
across the globe because of the air strikes that have killed numerous of the civilians in Yemen
at weddings, on school buses, funerals and the said air strikes were aided by American-
supplied bombs and intelligence. It is significant to note that the philosophers of
utilitarianism believe that moral judgments be based on the “equal consideration of interests.”
Thus, while the company EOS and the Federal Government considered their economic
interests in the said extension of deal, they failed to efficiently consider the fact that the sale
of 500 remote weapons systems (RWS) units were destined to be used in the same war that
had led to the devastating effects on the country of Yemen and its citizens. The said business
relationship can further not be justified from both the Actual consequence utilitarians and the
Foreseeable consequence utilitarians. The Foreseeable consequence utilitarians hold the
belief that a person that a person acts rightly by indulging into the actions that has the highest
level of “expected utility (Arnold, Audi & Zwolinski, 2010).” As stated earlier, the remote
weapon systems as manufactured by the EOS are likely to be used by the US counterparts to
be further used in the Saudi Arabia. The Federal Government has defended itself for the said
actions by stating that he terms of the arms trade treaty have been abided by in the said
assistance in the light of the human right obligations, but there is no transparency in the
transactions to accord the said fairness on the part of the government. From the point of view
of the Actual consequence utilitarians, the government has again failed to take care of the
reasonable steps such as the quantities of equipment provided by the EOS, and how the
means have been adopted to ensure that those weapons have not ended up on the battlefield in
Yemen. Further, there are two facets of the theory of utilitarianism namely the act
utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism. While the former states that the action that will create
the greatest net utility must be performed, the second stresses the significance of moral rules.
The lead difference in both the approaches is that while there is a direct application of
utilitarian principle directly to the evaluation of individual actions in the act utilitarianism,
there is direct application of the utilitarian principle on the evaluation of rules first which
further examines the individual actions in rule utilitarianism. Applying both the principles on
the stated circumstances, the following observations are noteworthy. It is significant to note,
that the Australian government did not follow the principles of the act utilitarianism, as the
risk of selling defence items overseas was not measured carefully. In terms of the rule
utilitarianism, the government did not way efficiently the consequences as supported by the
board minutes of the EOS where the company has signed a letter of intent or the sale of 500

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remote weapons systems (RWS) units destined for the Saudi Ministry of Interior. Therefore,
though the government states firmly that the export applications are considered after the due
assessment of the risk, the minutes of the company highlight it otherwise.
The second most prominent ethical theory is that of the theory of deontology as
proposed by the philosopher Immanuel Kant and popularly known as the Kantian analysis.
According to the theory of deontology, an actions must be comprised of the due consideration
of the moral and ethical guidelines, which will automatically lead to the refinement of the
outcomes. Thus, the Kantian hold the belief that few actions are always justly/ethically wrong
irrespective of overall results leading to the societal wellbeing at large. The application of the
principles of Kantian analysis to the given circumstances, lead to the following observations
that as the government granted the assistance to the said weapons manufacturing entity, there
was never a guarantee as to Australian weapons systems or component parts would not end
up being used in the war scenario in Yemen. Thus, without the performance of the robust risk
assessment procedure, the effective reliance can never be obtained whether the said actions
are morally right or wrong. Thus, there lies an absence of the conformity with a moral norm
in the said sanction of the government.
In addition to the above explained theories, one of the significant of three major
approaches in normative ethics is the Virtue ethics. The theory centrally focusses on the
virtues, or moral character (Van Hooft, 2014). This is in contrast to the duties as in case of
deontology and the consequences of actions (consequentialism) (Hursthouse & Crisp, 2013).
The virtue ethicists will resist the attempt to define virtues in terms of some other concept and
this is most fundamentally different concept of the theory of the virtue ethics. The term virtue
denotes a brilliant trait of character. It is significant to note that it is a matter of degree to
possess a virtue. To have full or perfect virtue is a unusual scenario as the individuals lack
moral or practical wisdom. One of the aspects of the practical wisdom in that the individuals
must not be driven by the emotion or inclination, rather make a decision by rational choice
(Slote, 2010). Some of the chief aspects of the virtue ethics theory is the target centred virtue
ethics agent based virtue ethics, and others. On application of the principles of the virtue
ethics on the stated case study, the following points are noteworthy as stated in the next
segment.
PART 2

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Agent based virtue ethics is one of the forms of the virtue ethics theory that are
characterised by the motivational and dispositional qualities of agents. This aspect of the
virtue ethics state that when an individual or group of individuals is working in capacity of
agents for others, they must not be dominated by the conflict of interests arising out of the
agent’s actual motives and the social wellbeing as a whole. It is significant to note that the
regulators and government of any nation are entitled to work for the community and
humanity as a whole in the capacity of the moral agents. It is further significant to be noted
that working for one’s country does not means to deny the right to be aware and considerate
of problems and situations of the citizens of the other countries, especially when a lot of
discussions have been going lately. In terms of the war initiated by the Saudi Arabia towards
the neighbouring country Yemen, it is significant to note that the region has been devastated
and the phenomena has already been termed as a grave crisis. The stated conflict has been
worldwide criticised and according to recent computed data by the UN, the situation would
lead to the worst famine in last 100 years in Yemen. These facts highlight the intensity of the
backlash faced by the perpetrators of the war and the physical, economic, psychological and
life loss to the citizens of that region.
In spite of the wide awareness of the incidents of Yemen and additional knowledge of
the Saudi Arabia utilising the military aid of the United Stated military forces, weapons and
intelligence systems, there is lack of the security measures taken by the government as
against the virtues of being a regulator of such an economically viable region. In addition the
countries like the United Kingdom, and Germany have already forbidden the defence exports
to Saudi Arabia, in order to resolve to end military support to Saudi Arabia because the said
war atrocities are already been viewed as breaches of international humanitarian laws. Thus,
the virtues are wide established already for the Australian Federal Government to consider. In
addition, the videos of the war atrocities has also forced the US Senate voting to withdraw
military aid for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. Thus, the sanctioning of the export deal to the
EOS is descriptive of the virtues of the Federal Government in power and not of the actions,
as this theory is person based and not action or consequence based.
Thus, though the principles of the virtue theory is in contrast to the utilitarianism and
Kantian analysis, yet all the theories had led to the similar conclusion that the acts of the
Australian Federal Government are unjustifiable. While the application of the utilitarianism
holds the absence of utility and happiness from indirect aid in such war crime, the deontology
states the inefficient conduct of duties and lack of transparency in action. Further, the virtue

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theory states that it is not the actions or the persons wrong, but it raises questions on the role
of the governments and the virtues of people in power towards advancement of the peace and
humanitarian rights.
As per the discussions conducted in the previous parts, it can be stated that ethical
principles are vital to guide the behaviour and conduct not just of the individuals, but the
organisations as well. The work was an evaluation of the various ethical aspects associated
with the Australian Federal Government’s contract with the weapon manufacturing company
EOS, the products of which are further being used by Saudi Arabia for the unethical and
inhuman war acts. The work employed a comprehensive analysis based on widely known and
influential ethical theories of the deontology and utilitarianism. An additional theory knows
as the virtue ethics has also been explained and applied in the given scenario, only to reach to
the conclusions that the acts of the Federal Government are unethical based on all the three
various ethical approaches. Thus, the striking point to be noted here is that while there is a
difference in the principles, yet the ethical analysis lead to the conclusion that the given case
circumstances are unethical on part of a government.

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Slote, M. (2010). Virtue ethics. In The Routledge companion to ethics. UK: Routledge, 504-
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Van Hooft, S. (2014). Understanding virtue ethics. UK: Routledge.
Welch, D., Taylor, K. & Trigger, R. (2019). Australian Government under fire over export of
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-20/australian-firm-eos-weapons-systems-
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