Periodic Reporting for period 1 - LEWE (The Law and Ethics of War's Ending)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-10-19 do 2023-10-18
My project developed a moral and legal framework for ending wars.
Developing a moral and legal framework for ending wars is of the utmost practical importance, as is evidenced by the magnitude of the slaughter in Ukraine. This war was described by the UN as the most rapidly developing humanitarian crisis since World War II.
Furthermore, the absence of an ethics of conflict termination remains a major philosophical omission, one that hinders the civic polity’s ability to judge whether a conflict is or should be over. This omission vitiates a founding tenet of democracy: civilian control of the military. The lack of clear ideas about what constitutes legitimate goals in war and what constitutes victory or defeat makes it far too easy for military and political leaders to paint a misleading picture, and it makes it harder for voters to judge whether continuing a war is morally justified.
I explored the idea that there need not be a particular point at which a just war must be brought to an end. Methodologically, I used the tools of analytic philosophy, mathematical modeling, and normative economics in order to formalize and refine moral and legal claims. By combining innovative formal and mathematical methods with rigorous philosophical analysis, and by proposing legal principles responsive to the relevant moral and practical considerations, my research offers the first moral and legal theory of conflict termination.
Developing a moral and legal framework for ending wars is of the utmost practical importance, as is evidenced by the magnitude of the slaughter in Ukraine. This war was described by the UN as the most rapidly developing humanitarian crisis since World War II.
Furthermore, the absence of an ethics of conflict termination remains a major philosophical omission, one that hinders the civic polity’s ability to judge whether a conflict is or should be over. This omission vitiates a founding tenet of democracy: civilian control of the military. The lack of clear ideas about what constitutes legitimate goals in war and what constitutes victory or defeat makes it far too easy for military and political leaders to paint a misleading picture, and it makes it harder for voters to judge whether continuing a war is morally justified.
I explored the idea that there need not be a particular point at which a just war must be brought to an end. Methodologically, I used the tools of analytic philosophy, mathematical modeling, and normative economics in order to formalize and refine moral and legal claims. By combining innovative formal and mathematical methods with rigorous philosophical analysis, and by proposing legal principles responsive to the relevant moral and practical considerations, my research offers the first moral and legal theory of conflict termination.
I have spent the beginning of the project constructing a rigorous, mathematically informed moral and legal framework that assesses the costs and benefits of armed conflict in order to inform decisions about when wars should end. My framework establishes the normative boundaries of defensive wars aimed at resisting unjustified invasion, deterring aggressors, incapacitating an aggressor’s armed forces, and achieving an enemy’s surrender. The framework explains why, in certain circumstances, even a just conflict must be concluded short of achieving its aims. I then show how the normative criteria for just conduct developed comport with customary legal principles and may therefore be incorporated into international law.
An article I wrote asks whether and how intentions matter when making proportionality calculations in war. In particular, I develop a mathematically robust account of proportionality under conditions of uncertainty. This article has been given the verdict of “revise and resubmit” from Ethics, the leading journal in moral and political philosophy. Working closely with my advisor, Professor Jeff McMahan, has been so fruitful and productive that we have decided to work as coauthors in resubmitting a revised and extended version of the paper.
I have had the honor of being invited to contribute two chapters to edited volumes focused on war, ethics, public policy, and international law. One of these chapters, to appear in Perpetual War and International Law: Legacies of the War on Terror, from Oxford University Press, discusses the complexities of risk-taking and risk-imposition in war, with implications for the laws governing the use of force. The second chapter addresses the problem of moral hazard, which involves allowing an aggressor to benefit from wrongful gains. My work on moral hazard is set to appear in the volume Ending Wars Justly: Theory and Applications, forthcoming with Routledge.
Given my dedication to connecting academic work with practical decision-making, I gratefully accepted an invitation to a two-day roundtable discussion at Reichman University in Israel, on technology’s role in ending wars. Participants include scholars of philosophy, law, and political science as well as civilian policymakers, practitioners in areas of law and human rights, journalists, and others beyond academia. Additionally, in October 2023 I presented a paper examining how AI-driven autonomous weapons can assess proportionality, part of the DILEMA (Designing International Law and Ethics into Military Artificial Intelligence) Project, an initiative of the Asser Institute and the University of Amsterdam.
This past January, I convened a two-day workshop at Corpus Christi College on the subject of moral aggregation—the process of combining and computing morally relevant data to assess the goodness, badness, or desirability of outcomes. Moral aggregation is a topic with direct policy relevance, particularly in fields like health policy and economics. For instance, decisions concerning allocation of limited medical resources during a public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic requires careful ethical analysis that considers the aggregation of various moral factors, including saving lives, minimizing harm, and ensuring fairness. Similarly, in economic-policy contexts, ethical considerations should influence cost-benefit analyses. When evaluating the impact of economic policies on societal well-being, policymakers should aggregate moral values related to economic efficiency, income distribution, and social justice to make informed and ethically sound decisions. Scholars participating in the seminar worked in various fields, including the philosophy of economics, rational and social choice theory, health policy, and the ethics of war.
An article I wrote asks whether and how intentions matter when making proportionality calculations in war. In particular, I develop a mathematically robust account of proportionality under conditions of uncertainty. This article has been given the verdict of “revise and resubmit” from Ethics, the leading journal in moral and political philosophy. Working closely with my advisor, Professor Jeff McMahan, has been so fruitful and productive that we have decided to work as coauthors in resubmitting a revised and extended version of the paper.
I have had the honor of being invited to contribute two chapters to edited volumes focused on war, ethics, public policy, and international law. One of these chapters, to appear in Perpetual War and International Law: Legacies of the War on Terror, from Oxford University Press, discusses the complexities of risk-taking and risk-imposition in war, with implications for the laws governing the use of force. The second chapter addresses the problem of moral hazard, which involves allowing an aggressor to benefit from wrongful gains. My work on moral hazard is set to appear in the volume Ending Wars Justly: Theory and Applications, forthcoming with Routledge.
Given my dedication to connecting academic work with practical decision-making, I gratefully accepted an invitation to a two-day roundtable discussion at Reichman University in Israel, on technology’s role in ending wars. Participants include scholars of philosophy, law, and political science as well as civilian policymakers, practitioners in areas of law and human rights, journalists, and others beyond academia. Additionally, in October 2023 I presented a paper examining how AI-driven autonomous weapons can assess proportionality, part of the DILEMA (Designing International Law and Ethics into Military Artificial Intelligence) Project, an initiative of the Asser Institute and the University of Amsterdam.
This past January, I convened a two-day workshop at Corpus Christi College on the subject of moral aggregation—the process of combining and computing morally relevant data to assess the goodness, badness, or desirability of outcomes. Moral aggregation is a topic with direct policy relevance, particularly in fields like health policy and economics. For instance, decisions concerning allocation of limited medical resources during a public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic requires careful ethical analysis that considers the aggregation of various moral factors, including saving lives, minimizing harm, and ensuring fairness. Similarly, in economic-policy contexts, ethical considerations should influence cost-benefit analyses. When evaluating the impact of economic policies on societal well-being, policymakers should aggregate moral values related to economic efficiency, income distribution, and social justice to make informed and ethically sound decisions. Scholars participating in the seminar worked in various fields, including the philosophy of economics, rational and social choice theory, health policy, and the ethics of war.
Peter Ohlin, philosophy editor at Oxford University Press, has expressed interest in publishing my book which is based on my project, provisionally titled The Morality and Law of Ending Wars. It promises to be the first book offering a complete and detailed account of the ethics and law of ending wars. I intend to submit a complete draft before the end of the calendar year. This book will establish my reputation as a leader in my field, as books are the most important research output in the areas of philosophy and law.
A second research program I have developed is focused on moral mathematics—the use of mathematical methods to tackle complex moral dilemmas. I shared some ideas about the vast potential of moral mathematics in a recent essay for the public-intellectual magazine Aeon. This piece has generated wide enthusiasm. I was invited to discuss themes from the essay on the philosophy podcast Socratic Studios and was subsequently contacted by Ben Tate, the UK philosophy editor at Princeton University Press, who is enthusiastic about publishing a short book on the subject for general readers.
At Corpus Christi College, I have spearheaded public events with leading scholars of philosophy, law, technology, and political science. For instance, in March 2022, I organized a public event on the moral implications of the war in Ukraine. Socio-economic impact can be achieved through discussion with the wider public, which is why I have made a point of publishing with general-interest intellectual magazines such as Boston Review and Aeon. Grant Bartley, editor of Philosophy Now, the prominent English-language philosophy magazine, has invited me to commission and edit a special issue exploring the intersection of climate change and philosophy, scheduled for May 2024. Finally, I will also have the honor of lecturing on this critical subject as the American Philosophical Association’s 2024 Baumgardt Memorial Fellow, awarded once every three years. My lecture, at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, will be an important opportunity to emphasize the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of my research.
A second research program I have developed is focused on moral mathematics—the use of mathematical methods to tackle complex moral dilemmas. I shared some ideas about the vast potential of moral mathematics in a recent essay for the public-intellectual magazine Aeon. This piece has generated wide enthusiasm. I was invited to discuss themes from the essay on the philosophy podcast Socratic Studios and was subsequently contacted by Ben Tate, the UK philosophy editor at Princeton University Press, who is enthusiastic about publishing a short book on the subject for general readers.
At Corpus Christi College, I have spearheaded public events with leading scholars of philosophy, law, technology, and political science. For instance, in March 2022, I organized a public event on the moral implications of the war in Ukraine. Socio-economic impact can be achieved through discussion with the wider public, which is why I have made a point of publishing with general-interest intellectual magazines such as Boston Review and Aeon. Grant Bartley, editor of Philosophy Now, the prominent English-language philosophy magazine, has invited me to commission and edit a special issue exploring the intersection of climate change and philosophy, scheduled for May 2024. Finally, I will also have the honor of lecturing on this critical subject as the American Philosophical Association’s 2024 Baumgardt Memorial Fellow, awarded once every three years. My lecture, at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, will be an important opportunity to emphasize the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of my research.