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This chapter locates the role of reciprocal risk within the warrior ethos. It first outlines that exposure to personal, physical risk has long been regarded as a key element in the ethos-based conception of legitimate violence. It demonstrates this through analysis of ancient warfare, both Greek and Roman, as well as the medieval code of chivalry. As will be further shown, however, the warrior ethos is an evolving framework; one that gives increasing consideration to factors such as restraint and professionalism in determinations of ethical status. This will be confirmed through analysis of premodern, modern, and ‘post-heroic’ warfare. As this chapter will illustrate, the adaptive quality of the warrior ethos is a key explanatory factor in the historical resolution of asymmetry-challenges.

This chapter explores the asymmetry-challenge of manned aerial bombing. It first provides a historical overview of the practice, beginning in the nineteenth century and concluding with the 1999 high-altitude bombing of Operation Allied Force (OAF). The chapter will then examine, and distinguish between, the ethical and moral opposition that emerged in response to civilian bombing. This opposition will then be reconsidered in the context of the First Gulf War and OAF. It is within these conflicts that we witness a shift in the locus of the asymmetric-challenge of aerial bombing, from civilian to combatant targeting. The chapter concludes by exploring the gradual resolution of the asymmetry-challenge of manned aerial bombing.

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