From antiquity to the present there has been cultural tension over different views of what is right and what is wrong, and every culture desires to apply their values universally to the rest of the world. When a nation chooses to go to war and exercises its sovereign right to use military force, it must act in a way that is ethically acceptable and morally justifiable in the eyes of its people. When one is perceived to act ethically one is acting in accordance with the perceiver's values. Defining what these values are and determining, in the broader sense, whether they are right or wrong is not the issue of this paper. The central issue of this paper is analyzing the affects caused by the perception that actions do not support stated values when that perception is created in the information environment. No country in the world today can act autonomously; each must justify its actions or inevitably face failure. Especially challenged is the country that justifies its choice to go to war based upon universally stated values and then in the conduct of that war consistently act in ways that do not support those values. The thesis of this study is that when physical actions that are not consistent with a nation's stated values are introduced into the information environment, they can be strategically adverse to that nation. Stated another way, in the present Information Era, it is very difficult for a government, especially a foreign, democratic government, to win a counterinsurgent war when the actions of their soldiers do not consistently support stated values. What is the importance of the relationship between ethics and counterinsurgency? In a single word, the answer is perception. The case of a Western, democratic government conducting a counterinsurgency in a foreign country is perhaps the best scenario with which to test this thesis, because of the stated Western values of freedom of speech and human rights. However, this thesis does not just apply to counterinsurgent warfare. This thesis is applicable to all forms of warfare conducted in the present age and for the foreseeable future. Through an analysis of the relationships among ethics, counterinsurgency, and how perceptions are created in the information environment, the enhanced dynamics affecting the conduct of warfare in the 21st century will be better understood. Through this study, weaknesses in industrial-era military doctrine will become more evident, and military, joint, and inter-agency transformation can be improved.

ADA449956 Approved for public release; Distribution is unlimited. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the student-authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency. (References to these studies should include the foregoing statement.)