Ethical Dilemmas in the Global Defense Industry

The defense industry develops, produces, and sells weapons that cause great harm. It operates at the intersection of the public and private sectors, with increased reliance on technology companies. Although such firms exist primarily to serve their host states, they routinely interact with foreign legal systems and diverse cultures. This context creates unique ethical challenges. That being the case, is the defense industry ethically defensible? How should it be regulated? How should it respond to worrisome technological developments such as autonomous weapons systems? How should business be conducted in countries where bribery is the norm? To what extent can this industry's intrinsic ethical problems be overcome? This book addresses such questions, bringing together the diverse perspectives of scholars and practitioners from academia, government service, the military, and the private sector. It aims to inform a discussion about the moral and legal challenges facing the global defense industry and to introduce solutions that are innovative, effective, and practical.

DANIEL SCHOENI has been with the U.S. Air Force JAG Corps since 2004 and is currently assigned to Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. He has served as a prosecutor, trial and appellate defense counsel, program counsel, and staff judge advocate. He recently completed a Ph.D. in public procurement law at the University of Nottingham, has lectured at King's College London since 2017, and is a professorial lecturer in law at George Washington University. TOBIAS VESTNER is Head of the Research and Policy Advice Department and Head of the Security and Law Programme at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. He has co-authored International Law and Policy on the Protection of Civilians (2022) and A Guide to International Disarmament Law (2019). He is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, a Fellow at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, and a Non-Resident Fellow at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research. Previously, he was Research Affiliate and Global Futures Fellow at Georgetown University and Policy Advisor at the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.