This book focuses primarily on two entwined questions: the ethics of interrogation, and the role and meaning of professional responsibility in an era of terrorism. The utility of the book is in its detailed focus on a variety of professionals—psychologists, lawyers, doctors, interrogators, as well as members of the uniformed military—in the context of the various conflicts that arose over US programs of interrogation and torture after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Though the author is a professor of religious ethics, there is no real discussion of these issues from a theological or religious perspective that might be of interest to his readers. Instead, the book examines differing conceptions of professional responsibility in regard to the serious issues involved in US “counter-terrorism” programs.

The book finds that conceptions of professional responsibility and public service embraced by the various professions under discussion had enduring effects on both opposition to US programs of torture after 9/11 and the subsequent public debate about torture. Codes of ethics (for example, that of the American Psychological Association) and related conceptions of ethical conduct and responsibility shaped the arguments of those who advocated torture, as well as those who opposed it. Because the debate was framed in terms of these ethical codes, the author argues, there is room for some optimism regarding the role of professions in upholding human rights. At the same time, while the realm of transparency for American use of torture has expanded, the author rightly underscores that accountability, for the most part, has not. While structures of legal consciousness and responsibility motivated those actors who sought to oppose US programs of torture, the number of those in opposition was too small to halt the institutionalization of these practices in the field. Among the most interesting and perhaps still not well-enough-known examples of opposition was that of much of the uniformed military, notably the highest legal authorities in that institution, the Judge Advocate General's Corps.

The book comprises ten chapters, examining questions such as conflictual role responsibilities among professionals; discipline, punishment, or the lack thereof in regard to professional accountability; and lessons that can be learned from the standards of dignity and law that are formally upheld by US society. The author adopts the standard Kantian categorical imperative of treating all persons as ends in themselves and not mere means; this provides the basis for a careful evaluation of a host of moral dilemmas.

In keeping with the narrower focus of the book on the ethics of interrogation and professional responsibility, the author generally sidesteps some issues, perhaps most importantly the reasons for the establishment of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and the creation of the specific category of illegal combatants (as opposed to prisoners of war) as a way to evade legal and moral obligations. Yet this very approach somewhat limits the author's ability to mediate accurately the conflicts between those who opposed all professional engagement with Guantanamo and those who took a less hands-off approach. The author does, on the other hand, spend some time at the end reflecting on the increasingly important question of targeted killings. Overall, the book offers important reflections on the ethics of torture and the role and responsibilities of professionals, both of which have emerged as key questions in our twenty-first-century culture.