When Machines Help Us Make Life-or-Death Decisions: How should the laws of armed conflict address the rise of AI-augmented decision-making?
Dr. Jovana Davidovic - USNA Class of 1962 Research Fellow
Recently,... Read more
An Ethics Code for the Armed Forces: A Counterpoint
Dr. Joe Thomas - Director, Stockdale Center
Col Bonadonna’s central thesis is clearly stated up front: “The American military needs a code of... Read more
The Least Abhorrent Choice?
When gaging the morality of the use of atomic weapons to end the Asia Pacific War, one of the things we are obliged to consider is the likely consequences of other options available at the time. We... Read more
Last August marked the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima; three days later a second bomb obliterated Nagasaki. As early as August 9, the day of the Nagasaki explosion, the... Read more
This past August marked the 75th anniversary of the most ethically controversial decisions in the history of warfare. On the 6th of August 1945, and then again on the 9th of August, the United States dropped atomic bombs on... Read more
A ‘stock in trade’ of philosophical literature is the striking thought experiment. A staple in ethics and law courses is the written case study. The pedagogical advantage of these tools is... Read more
Normally, the fact that an act is harmful is a reason not to do it. There is, in other words, a presumption against doing harm. Many theorists of espionage ethics have begun from the observation that the actions of... Read more
The infamous 2007 Nisour Square shooting in Iraq that led to the deaths of 17 civilians at the hands of American private contractors unleashed public debate about ethical use of these actors in armed conflict that continues... Read more
While there are many ways to analyze ADM Stockdale’s life and his leadership, in his writings about both of those, he returned to three themes again and again.
The importance of experience in stressful... Read more
The Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership is proud to have just completed a week-long inaugural “Ethics Across the Curriculum” faculty workshop. The opening words of U.S. Naval... Read more
Maybe, maybe not. What is clear is the world needs well-considered ideas to help solve “knotty problems.” I define a knotty problem as particularly difficult to solve, typically... Read more
A blog covering ethical leadership issues relevant to military operations, national security and domestic politics
The Center will consider submissions of 750-2000 words. Please send your full draft to Edward Barrett at ebarrett@usna.edu.
The opinions expressed in these posts are the authors',
and do not represent those of the Stockdale Center, Navy or Department of Defense.
