%0 Journal Article
%T The interplay of the Dirty Hands of British area bombing and the wicked problem of defeating Nazi Germany in the Second World War ¨C A lesson in leadership ethics
%A Keith Grint
%A Paul Sanders
%J Leadership
%@ 1742-7169
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1742715017751532
%X The British area bombing of Germany in the Second World War has provided for enduring ethical controversy. Eschewing conventional approaches, we present area bombing as a Dirty Hands leadership response to the Wicked Problem of BritainĄ¯s wartime strategic predicament. Using historical methodology, we establish two distinct phases in area bombing: 1942¨C1944, when this was ethically contentious but politically necessary; and 1944¨C1945, which lacks a Dirty Hands legitimation. The second phase follows upon a six-month lull in area bombing during Bomber CommandĄ¯s assignment to Overlord (D-Day) duties. It is characterised by credible alternatives to area bombing, a waning sense of proportionality in Bomber Command activity, and intensifying death and destruction without justifiable purpose. We relate the breaching of the boundaries of Dirty Hands in Phase II to a precise date ¨C September 1944. This coincides with the mutation of the strategic Wicked Problem into a Critical Problem, visible in the stalling of the Allied land campaign in France. Mistaking this for a Tame Problem, the C-in-C of Bomber Command, Arthur Harris, exploits the political context to escalate his commitment. Following WattersĄ¯ alignment of Critical Problems with Virtue Ethics, we argue that HarrisĄ¯ leadership in Phase II is not consistent with Virtue Ethics (of which recognition of the boundaries of Dirty Hands is a function). Harris is the archetype of the leader who gets away with exploiting a Wicked Problem because his superiors have let down their guard. In the final instance, his failure of ethical leadership becomes their own
%K Area bombing
%K dirty hands
%K Harris
%K leadership
%K Second World War
%K virtue ethics
%K wicked
%K tame and critical problems
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1742715017751532