Talk Videos from 2021 McCain Conference “The Ethics of Intelligence and Grey Zone Operations"

The 2021 McCain Conference examined two understudied and increasingly important issues: “The Ethics of Intelligence and Grey Zone Operations.” While thinking about the justice of warfare is highly developed, ethical analyses of intelligence activities—which can involve lying, manipulation, coercion, stealing and killing—are relatively recent and conflicting.  Some argue that the rights-based just war criteria are applicable to harmful intelligence activities; others insist that spying is a “game” in which participants tacitly agree to abide by certain rules.  In addition to identifying relevant ethical principles, the conference will apply them to specific espionage operations such as human and (rapidly improving) technical methods of intelligence gathering, interrogational torture, covert action, assassination and analysis; and evaluate existing education and oversight efforts. 
On the other hand, ethical work on lethal and sublethal interstate competition occurring in a “grey zone” between war and peace has only just begun.  One of the first gatherings of experts on the topic, the conference will define the grey zone, identify the relevant normative frameworks, and discuss moral challenges associated with various operations—limitedly lethal, economic, information, election, legal and cyber.