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Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership
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Image for Embracing the Future: Overcoming Path Dependence and Risk Aversion in AI Adoption
Embracing the Future: Overcoming Path Dependence and Risk Aversion in AI Adoption
Over the past several years, the United States Naval Academy has served as a micro-laboratory for the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Initially, the conversation was confined to Generative AI, machines mimicking human... Read more
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Forged in Tradition: The Chief’s Season and the Making of Enlisted Leaders
The Season of Becoming Every year, the Chief’s Season reminds me why the Navy’s backbone isn’t built in classrooms or through instruction manuals — it’s forged through challenge,... Read more
Image for Leveraging Coaching to Support Midshipmen: A Research Review
Leveraging Coaching to Support Midshipmen: A Research Review
Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy undergo a critical period of growth and change marked by academic challenges, significant personal development, intense physical training, and the promotion of ethical leadership. Over their four... Read more
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Like Spartans
Shall we be Athens or Sparta? As long as there have been service academies, this comparison has been trotted out in debates over their proper form and function. For just as long, it has been a false dichotomy. Citing a 1979 work by John... Read more
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The USNA Coaching Community
The practice of coaching has long been valued at the U.S. Naval Academy. Coaching can be found in places like the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership and the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) since at least 2013. Starting in... Read more
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Does Terminator Have Rights?
Within contemporary discourse on the ethics of AWS (autonomous weapons systems), one of the most popular in-principle moral arguments against the use of such technologies is the so-called ‘responsibility gap’... Read more
Image for Great Power, Responsibility, and Killing in War
Great Power, Responsibility, and Killing in War
"[T]he current surge … in robotic warfare is being driven by the promise of efficiency and control and the hunger for what militaries have tasted in Nagrorno-Karabakh and in Ukraine: the power of universal... Read more
Image for The Yugoslav Wars and the Dangers of an Emotion Fueled Media Environment
The Yugoslav Wars and the Dangers of an Emotion Fueled Media Environment
Introduction In 1992, Bosnia declared independence from Yugoslavia, following in the footsteps of Croatia and Slovenia, who had done the same the previous year. Bosnian Muslim control over the new government immediately upset the large... Read more
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This Kind of Academy
“The problem is to see not what is desirable, or nice, or politically feasible, but what is necessary.” T.R. Fehrenbach, This Kind of War Fehrenbach, as usual, has it right.  Those examining the purpose of... Read more
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Reflections on Stockdale a Quarter-Century Later
As a newly hired ethics instructor at the Stockdale Center, I think it somewhat appropriate at this moment in time to share some of my thoughts and reflections on the man whom this center is named after, his legacy, and my specific... Read more
Image for Neither Athens nor Sparta—Reconsidering the Mission of the Naval Academy
Neither Athens nor Sparta—Reconsidering the Mission of the Naval Academy
Since the COVID pandemic, the word unprecedented has been used constantly—almost always, I believe, incorrectly. There’s a precedent for just about everything if you examine history carefully enough. Alongside this... Read more
Image for The Liberal Arts and the Formation of the American Military Officer
The Liberal Arts and the Formation of the American Military Officer
  In the education of a military officer, it is not sufficient to cultivate technical competence alone. One must also nurture judgment, moral discernment, and a steadfast devotion to the constitutional order the officer is... Read more
Image for Remembering the Primary Mission of Our Academies
Remembering the Primary Mission of Our Academies
The primary mission of America’s service academies is not to mimic Ivy League institutions—it is to produce officers capable of fighting and winning our nation’s wars. While... Read more
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Moral Education & Development
The primary mission of America’s service academies is not to mimic Ivy League institutions—it is to produce officers capable of fighting and winning our nation’s wars. While... Read more
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Law and War
The primary mission of America’s service academies is not to mimic Ivy League institutions—it is to produce officers capable of fighting and winning our nation’s wars. While... Read more
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Technology, AI, and the Ethics of Modern Warfare
The primary mission of America’s service academies is not to mimic Ivy League institutions—it is to produce officers capable of fighting and winning our nation’s wars. While... Read more
Image for War, Strategy, Political Theory, and International Relations
War, Strategy, Political Theory, and International Relations
The primary mission of America’s service academies is not to mimic Ivy League institutions—it is to produce officers capable of fighting and winning our nation’s wars. While... Read more
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Military & Professional Ethics
The primary mission of America’s service academies is not to mimic Ivy League institutions—it is to produce officers capable of fighting and winning our nation’s wars. While... Read more
Image for Normative Ethical Theories & Moral Tradition
Normative Ethical Theories & Moral Tradition
The primary mission of America’s service academies is not to mimic Ivy League institutions—it is to produce officers capable of fighting and winning our nation’s wars. While... Read more
Image for Moral Psychology & Human Moral Experience
Moral Psychology & Human Moral Experience
The primary mission of America’s service academies is not to mimic Ivy League institutions—it is to produce officers capable of fighting and winning our nation’s wars. While... Read more
Image for Leadership, Character, & The Warrior Ethos
Leadership, Character, & The Warrior Ethos
The primary mission of America’s service academies is not to mimic Ivy League institutions—it is to produce officers capable of fighting and winning our nation’s wars. While... Read more
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Just War Theory & Military Ethics
The primary mission of America’s service academies is not to mimic Ivy League institutions—it is to produce officers capable of fighting and winning our nation’s wars. While... Read more
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Philosophy and History
The primary mission of America’s service academies is not to mimic Ivy League institutions—it is to produce officers capable of fighting and winning our nation’s wars. While... Read more

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