Traditional Peace and Security

Navigating Ethical Complexity and Contracting in Multi-Stakeholder Projects

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The challenges: Balancing the desire to collaborate with / provide analytical support to a government agency on a matter of crucial national and human security importance, with the need to maintain institutional and analytical autonomy in our own academic-practitioner interactions. – Managing expectations by practitioners / policymakers about what type of analysis could be reasonably and ethically produced under time and resource constraints …

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“Just War” Debates and Evolving Uses of Force

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The challenges: The background and policy setting: Brunstetter started his Ph.D. in 2000 in the context of “just war” debates, which were shaped by 9/11 shortly thereafter. He was not trained as a Just War scholar. He was interested in the parallels between the 16th century debates about just war and “barbarians” and the Bush […]

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Ethical Concerns on a Research Project

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The challenges: The background and policy setting: Parkinson earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago in 2013. She researches organizational behavior and social change during and after war, with a regional focus on the Middle East and North Africa. Of note for this reflection is her research on humanitarian organizations and […]

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AI and Machine Learning in the U.S. Military Context

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The challenges: The background and policy setting: John R. Emery is a scholar who works on the intersection of technology, international security, and the ethics of war. His recent work focuses on issues of how emotion, abstraction, and human-machine interaction effect ethical decision-making in war. His work in Critical Military Studies analyzed the utilization of […]

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Passing judgement on organizations that offer me research consultancies ?

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Is it really my place as an academic researcher to pass judgement on organizations that offer me research consultancies in areas that align with my expertise? After all, my research is unbiased and well executed. Isn’t it better that I provide clients with sound academic research rather than turn down their work, which increases the […]

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Russian scholars–how to respond

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At the moment, universities and colleges in the United States are looking for ways to increase pressure on the Russian regime to reverse their invasion of Ukraine. Gov Polis has advised CO higher ed institutions to not only divest, but to terminate contracts and grants that were in collaboration with Russian institutions. Is this the […]

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Requests for Revisions That Go Against One’s Findings

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The Challenge: Responding to requests for substantive revisions to consultancy work that go against one’s findings, analysis, or professional opinion The Background and Policy Setting: King is a political scientist committed to conducting policy-relevant research related to war, peace, development, and education. Over the past 15 years, alongside her university-based work, she has partnered with […]

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Engaging with Business to Encourage Responsible Behavior

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The challenges: Background: Virginia Haufler is a scholar whose research explores the governance of global corporations. She has engaged with business representatives and policymakers on a variety of corporate accountability issues as both a scholar and as a participant in policy discussions. She is a professor at the University of Maryland in the Department of […]

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How to engage with companies

By ahm@reed.edu / / Comments Off on How to engage with companies

My research has generated findings that could improve corporate social responsibility but I am worried that it could also enhance the power of companies that take my advice. Are there ways to engage with the private sector that avoids the potential for giving large companies even more power than they already have?

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Ethics of Engagement and Sources of Funding

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The challenges: The background and policy setting: All scholars need funding for research. Sometimes we need to pay for field research, sometimes for surveys. Sometimes – indeed, often – what we most need is time to write. Happily, there are many sources of funding, from private foundations to governments and others, available (although of course […]

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Ethics of Engagement