Professor Stephen Wrage. Technology, Ethics and the Ukraine War.

Out of respect for all attendees, we ask that masks are worn at this event.

Turkey is supplying armed drones to the Ukrainian military, while Russia is buying “Kamikaze Drones” from Iran. Meanwhile, Taiwan is displaying its own advanced weaponized drones, probably as a deterrence against China. Is the global proliferation of drone warfare now underway? If so, what are the implications for international peace and security? What are the implications for civilians?

What are the latest developments in drone and smart weapon technology?

Are these weapons really that precise? Do they lower the political costs of engaging in armed conflict, by doing away with human “pilots” who might otherwise be killed or captured? Are the ethics of warfare affected when the person pulling the “trigger” is 100s or 1000s of kilometres away?

To guide us in a discussion of precision-guided weapons and the ethics of their use, we are very lucky to be joined by Dr. Stephen D. Wrage, a Professor of Political Science at the United States Naval Academy.

Professor Wrage has been a Pew Faculty Fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright Scholar at the National University of Singapore. He has written for The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Asian Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic, and is the editor of Immaculate Warfare (on the ethics of precision-guided weapons) and The Politics and Strategy of No-Fly Zones. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.