 Well, good afternoon everybody Admiral's already teased you and me about my name you imagine I might get that from time to time and The easiest way to tell the difference between us. I say is that I do not have 11 billion dollars I Think after paying my hotel bill last night. I have maybe 11 dollars if anybody But The way I get back at the world for teasing me about my my my name is I point out that he and his associates make movies That have to do with imaginary wars and imaginary robots Well, my job is to get to talk and work with all of you wonderful people Talking about some very serious issues in real war with real robots So that's a difference and that's kind of a segue into what I want to do this afternoon with you which is You know admit that like you I'm new here. I mean I've been to the War college before I've been on the stage a couple of times to give a guest lecture or teach a class or something But this is my first day literally I got here last night first day on the faculty and it's an honor to hold the James Stockdale chair But it's a chair in ethics and their first task for me was to give the ethics brief And I thought to myself, you know, I can't imagine a bigger buzzkill on your first day Then to have me do that and It's because I love my field I think it's very interesting and I've been very privileged over the last two and a half decades to work with midshipman cadets Young officers at the you know midpoint of their career and now at the war college Many of you have been selected for command and you're here. Well among other things I suspect you're here because you've already proven yourselves to be good leaders and leaders of character and You've got ethics and don't need any ethics brief for me So why would we have to keep doing this? I think in the Navy? We've almost over exposed this topic to where I like to tell people that the ethics brief is a Form of punishment that we've developed for people who have done nothing wrong and Don't deserve to be punished and I don't want to do that this afternoon I would like to pick up on themes such as we're raised at convocation this morning about the history of this institution And what was it an institution designed to do? Well, if this works, this is our current president To David doing his change of command with our past president and talking to you and all who are here at the time About the important themes we should be focused on and we're focused on warfighting and it seems to me thinking about warfighting and the ethical issues involved in warfighting Thinking about how to operationalize this all the theories we teach in all the classrooms so that they're They work in practice as well as theory that they work in the context of the Navy That we think about how these things are going to translate into conflicts in the South China Sea or under the South China Sea As well as in cyberspace those are the things that are interesting to think about and looking to the future Looking to the kinds of conflicts that that we will face and adversaries We are and will continue to face and the challenge is just over the horizon. This is the job of this college and you might wonder well particularly with war fighting how does ethics get into this and I'd like to start by Looking at this whole question of ethics not as a brief as a form of punishment not as a Sort of litany of horror stories about terrible things people have done We don't need to talk about fat letter and all of that and the husbandry scandal and how could they do that? And what were they thinking and so forth instead? I'd like to talk about the kinds of challenges we'll face in the future that involve a very important moral dimension That goes hand-in-hand with what we heard this morning indeed historically from the lips of Commodore loose himself about the profession and About you as professionals We say these things all the time But what does it actually mean? What does it mean to talk about men and women in military uniforms? Licensed to wield deadly force to protect and defend their fellow citizens and in our case the Constitution What does it mean to say that that's a profession that we sometimes refer to historically as the profession of arms? And that's not something to which I have clear answers. It's something about which I have some Questions that I'd like to throw out have you begin to think about and invite you for this year together With our faculty to think about them Collectively and see what kinds of answers we can come up with So if we start looking through the lens of the profession look at these young men and women who are going to be our navy enlisted taking their Oath enlisted oath We what are they going to hear? Well among other things they're going to hear the pep talks on integrity and being persons of integrity and character So they're going to get the ethics brief until maybe they like you get sick of it But they'll hear important things they'll they'll see that their organization is very concerned with ethical behavior and they'll See somehow that we believe ethics is connected with good leadership that it's impossible to be an effective leader if you're not an ethical person and Treating your men and women under your command with respect with dignity and respect and so forth They're going to get all of that. But what does it mean? Why do we say this? Why do we hammer this home? I? Think it's because Precisely of what it is that this college is emphasizing and that you do for a living Which is in the end? Warfighting it is because war fighting is what the profession of arms is about That makes ethics so central to it and here let me pause because There's a way in which you could argue that what I just said or what we seem to be asserting is false Go back to the classical source of military strategy if we think as loose reminded us this morning think of War fighting and war as both a science and an art who is the preeminent scientist of war in the modern era Carl von Klauswitz the book on war and what does that book say about ethics? well in the very first chapter it says It warned you ethics Should play no part in warfare whatsoever It's even dangerous. He says and he apologizes for saying that but he says look here's the deal War is a dangerous business it involves force and violence and bloodshed and if people get squeamish about that They may use that force with less vigor than someone else who doesn't have all that moral sensitivity and they'll be at a disadvantage and You probably heard some version of that principle that if you fight ethically or if you fight according to an Compliance with the laws international humanitarian law or the law of armed conflict You're tying one hand behind your back with respect to the kind of adversaries especially that we face now Who don't pay any attention to that? Why should we if they don't this is even an issue in the presidential campaign right now a Discussion of this very point with regard to the military and I think it's a terribly important one for us to think about clearly So those who oppose ethics in warfare have Klaus wits on their side apparently War ethics has no place in war because war is about killing and bloodshed or as we say today We kill people and break things until somebody tells us to stop. What's ethical about that? And then you hear the story that Admiral Harley reminded of of our Previous president of the War College now superintendent of the Naval Academy Tim Carter. I heard Admiral Carter Tell that story himself on himself because he got in a lot of trouble or at least he had to face a lot of cross examination for his decision not to To come home with his wings dirty and not to drop his ordinance and that of his squadron that day And his answer was in my judgment what I saw on that bridge would have resulted in far too many Death and injuries to people who had done nothing whatsoever to deserve to be killed or injured They were not the enemy. They were not combatants. Our target was the bridge and our desire to make it impossible for the Serbian forces to cross to use that bridge as part of their Logistical supply line our object was never to kill Serbian civilians. So I didn't That sounds like ethics to me and it sounded like ethics to our new president And I would submit to you that it played a very important part in that war and in prevailing in that war And that's something I think we need to think about together About the role of ethics in warfare because it's still the way Clowswitz tried to portray it if indeed it was that way then this is our preeminent strategist and theorist about Military tactics and strategy Carl Clowswitz. He gives us this advice. Is he right in this point? I'll give you a little hint in my own case. I'm One of the things I'm gonna do while I'm here teaching classes and working with you all is working on a book a Research book that I call beyond Clowswitz and the subtitle is Ethics and military strategy in the 21st century That is to say I'm gonna claim or try to support the notion through evidence and cases and argument and what have you that Indeed what's Transformed about warfare from the early modern period the 1830s after the Napoleonic Wars of which Clowswitz wrote Until now is that more and more moral considerations like those that Admiral Carter took seriously have Come to play an essential role in effective strategy and in Finally attaining victory in warfare Now that's something I suspect just about every single one of you sitting here has experienced In one way or another in your own various deployments in the various theaters of conflict and combat We've had over the last decade You've seen ethical dilemmas You've seen cases where doing what you would regard as the right thing the moral thing or the legal thing Turns out also to be the thing that is essential We say winning hearts and minds. Well, not alienating hearts and minds That that incurring too many casualties on the civilian side through lack of concern for proportionality and discrimination in our use of force can actually lead to defeat Can actually lead to a lack of support for our efforts in the areas in where in which we fight And there's rather considerable evidence that Isis's habit as one example of an adversary We face that Isis's habit at the moment of Behaving brutally with respect to everyone under their sway or under their power is not really As dr. Phil would say working out all that well for them in the long run. It makes people angry It terrifies them it angers them and finally if they get desperate enough They don't want anything to do with this new order of the caliphate. This is not what? Islam promised this was not what their religion taught them How we treat one another and how our government operates in a Islamic state and it All you guys are is not Islamic fundamentalist you're a bunch of thugs and criminals and we want nothing to do with you and That is having every bit as much negative impact right now We are hearing from the field on Isis's ability to project power in the regions where it's trying to control as our bombing raids are and as are the Syrian Adversaries the Bazaar al-Assad and Isis Just as much they're on Undermining their own cause as as as they are yielding to our use of force against them So that's the kind of thing that goes on or at least seems to be going on But I know I and I think all of us here faculty who work and think about these things Military and civilians need your help because you've been there you've seen this from both sides from all sides and Not all those stories are happy ones. Some of them are pretty tough Some of them are hard to live with and we need for you to share those with us And we need to think about them together in the variety of classes. We teach in national security and air power and sea power and Logistics and whatever else we may be thinking about Strategy and policy We need to keep that moral dimension and that dimension of the profession of arms in front of us as The thing to be examined to be operationalized Navalized and futurized As we move forward here together So I'm going to urge you to do that I'm going to suggest to you that I'm making a statement here making a claim that we together are making a claim about the role of serious ethics Not just ordinary morality of being a nice person and so forth But the code of the warrior to use a phrase of my colleague Shannon French Who wrote a wonderful book on that title the code of the warrior? Warrior values past and present in different cultures and ages looking at all the ways in which men and women involved in conflict and in protecting fellow citizens and victims of oppression and violence and have formulated the very principles that we now find enshrined today in international humanitarian law of armed conflict as well as in the kinds of Codes we have for our profession itself like honor courage and commitment We start to unpack those and the army equivalent of those and the Air Force equivalent of these core values And we find that they have a long-standing centuries-old tradition in the profession of arms long before there were ever any such thing as international law and international lawyers that came from you From men and women like yourselves Reflecting on the practices in which you're engaged and the better and worse ways of going about achieving success Efficiency and excellence in those practices. So ethics is part of the profession of arms Now that ties in with a very interesting thing that's been going on in Department of Defense of late Which is to lift up this whole idea that we heard a lot about this morning And again that Admiral Harley reminded about us about in his opening remarks this afternoon About the profession itself and what it is to be a professional It's a word that has a lot of meanings and some of them aren't what we have in mind for example that you get paid If if you do get paid And whether you're paid enough and so forth I mean we do we use professional as somebody who gets paid for what they do playing basketball or football say Versus the amateur who doesn't get paid for doing those things clearly not what we have in mind What we have in mind is something more like well You go back to Klaus witz and he having said ethics has no role in war Then writes his third book on what he calls military Virtues and spends a whole time talking about how the men and women that we recruit from our citizen armies and you know militia ordinary people who come and serve their country and in the military in this way Quickly come to think of themselves as a community of Practitioners what he calls in guild what we would call a profession with professional values and professional virtues and a spree decor a Sense of togetherness and purpose that needs to be understood and cultivated Well, that's exactly what the code of ethics is about in a profession every profession has a code it had the doctors have the Hippocratic oath for example and Physicians and health care people are supposed to Take care of their patients Do no harm to their patients do everything they do for the good of their patients and That's something unique to doctors Used car salesmen who also get paid for what they do don't have any such obligations so far as we know right and at what sets a profession apart from just a vocation or a trade or a mode of making a living is that you have a Profound social purpose one of service and sacrifice for the greater good for the common good for the good of the public not just yourself and I say to you who has a more profound notion of that kind of service and sacrifice than the military profession So we need to say if we are a profession in that sense a Guild or a group with a social purpose a social function for the good of society that involves Setting aside our own personal needs and inclinations for the greater good on occasion What are those values? What is that code? What are the principles by which we live and work? That the military in terms of thinking about ethics and the professions generally the military is a profound and important and essential profession, but it's one that we have not well Understood we haven't spent nearly enough time thinking about struggling with Working on the question of what exactly does it really mean to be a professional and what kinds of? Principles are we going to hold ourselves to and live up to it? Isn't a matter of complying with a code that somebody else wrote It isn't a matter of having the jag come and read you the ever more oppressive Regulatory environment which we live under as federal Members of the federal workforce. It's not that at all Those are legal considerations and complying with the law is perhaps the the least common Denominator of what it is to be an ethical person let alone to follow the code of ethics of your profession We're looking for the things Well, I just couldn't do better than the story that Admiral Harley told of Admiral Carter. We're looking for the things that govern yourself when the Rules are unclear or when the rules are lax and permissive and would allow you to do anything at all What will you do when you can do anything that you want? What will you do when the law is silent? What will you do when the regulatory environment as strict as it is? Finally has nothing to say and nothing to tell you what risks will you take? What values will you embody? Where will they come from? I think they come from you and The guys and gal sitting next to you and from the people the community to which you belong and the tradition and history of the service In which you serve But we need to do the hard spade work during your year together with us here in thinking deeply about what those values are What those guiding traditions are how they operate when we don't have a jag in Around to tell us what to do or when the regulatory Principles have not yet been written or don't extend to the theater in which we find ourselves working We we need to be self Governed self-regulated We need to be and this is essential to a profession Autonomous we and we talk about autonomy and robots Can we get some autonomy in human beings first? Can we get people who can think for themselves and not be punished for that? Who could be given the latitude and the trust in within our organizational setting to? Dissern what is right and do what is right? How do we make that happen? And what principles do we teach to help ensure a good outcome when it does happen? That's what we need to think about so the Department of Defense has made this a new kind of rubric a symbol a cipher For the person who doesn't need to just be told what to do and it's not simply a blind and obedient bureaucrat but as a self-thinking self-directing self-governing Person of wisdom Judgment prudence good sense and of course character integrity and morality. That's what we're after and To get there you may have noticed in the last few years as we've begun to recognize how important it says and how little we've done in digging up the the ground and cultivating the soil and getting ready for this a metaphor that my Colleague Linda Johnson will talk to you about in just a moment How badly we've done with regard to to getting ready to to to think about this this question of? Ethics in the professions and the profession of arms the code of the warrior military ethics We've set up some Resources to try and help Everybody in the service. We have the Naval Leadership and Ethics Center here at the War College Brando I'm looking forward to getting a chance to meet the folks there and to to work with them Army and And the folks who come here from the army know that you've led the way on this and have to say You know in a stage whisper to my Navy and Marine Corps colleagues They the army is out in front of us on this. They've been doing it longer. They have a really good really effective Army Center Or the Center for the Army profession and its ethic set up at West Point with Branches out at Fort Leavenworth and other key strategic educational Leadership development centers that the Army runs But all of us are on the same page thinking we've got to do more and devote more resources to this as Well as make it explicitly as we're trying to do this afternoon a focus For your year of study and leadership development For your own Professional development as you assume positions of command and authority in the Navy and our fellow services so those resources are there for you and I conclude by simply Saying that I want to invite you To instead of you know put aside those bad images you have of the things We put you through the punishment. We've inflicted on you in the name of ethics you those of you who've done nothing wrong after somebody else has That's not what we're doing. That's not what we want to think about anymore We want to think carefully about your professional development your role as a member of the profession of arms and what? Moral principles are embodied in that how to put those into practice how to teach them to those young recruits Whose pictures with whose pictures I began my own talk and see what we can accomplish here in this year together With your help and participation So with that I would like to throw things open for a minute if anybody has any questions complaints Remarks suggestions That they'd like to raise we can do that we have a little time for