Tyler O’Neal | Photo by Angelo Meredino
As an analyst with an American drone program, Tyler O’Neal was part of a covert team based in the United States that conducted lethal drone strikes against high-level terrorist leaders in remote parts of the world.
“I don’t regret my work and generally think such strikes are beneficial—but there are always ethical dilemmas involved,” said O’Neal, who served in military and civilian national security positions at the Department of Defense, CIA and elsewhere during the last 20 years.
“You’re targeting human beings and taking human life.”
At times he has wondered whether strikes are sufficiently beneficial to justify and whether they serve the best interests of the United States and humanity generally.
Now O’Neal is grappling with such issues in a new way—as a student in the Master of Arts in Military Ethics program at Case Western Reserve University—the only dedicated master’s degree of its kind in the country.
The in-person program draws not only service members, but undergraduates and graduate students who have no military ties, but may seek careers in international law, public policy, human rights and humanitarian efforts.
And now in another first, the master’s program includes U.S. Army chaplains, whose duties include giving ethical advice to commanding officers. Several chaplains began classes on campus last fall, and the Army Chaplain Corps plans to send a cohort to the one-year program annually.
Shannon French | Photo by Calen Aubertin
After earning their degrees, the chaplains will teach ethics to newly commissioned Army officers.
“It’s important to teach students— whether they are civilians or service members—how to contribute to and drive complex ethical conversations,” said Shannon E. French, PhD, the program’s co-director and Inamori Professor in Ethics in the College of Arts and Sciences.
“Leaders and policymakers—and even voters— can often lack the nuanced understanding and ethical insight required to make key decisions that affect the military and veterans, but these skills can be learned.”
French taught for 11 years at the U.S. Naval Academy before joining Case Western Reserve in 2008 and is among the leading international scholars in the military ethics field. Now her long-standing connections have led to the chaplains coming to campus to further their education. They “are the voices in the room who can raise concerns in the military from an ethical perspective,” French said. “The questions we consider in class are not theoretical for many of the students taking these courses.”
While the ethics of conflict have been debated since antiquity, the world faces troubling and complex questions with the increasing use of emerging strategies, weapons and tools.
Jessica Wolfendale
Launched in 2018, the military ethics program addresses such questions with an interdisciplinary approach. Students can take courses in law, leadership, history, philosophy, artificial intelligence, bioethics—and even electives on ethics in war-based video games or artistic representations of war.
They explore topics such as the moral aspects of modern warfare, decisions on when and how to engage in conflict and obligations to care for both active- duty service members and veterans. This academic year, class discussions take place amid a backdrop including Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war and the American military response in Yemen’s longtime civil war.
Soldiers’ and chaplains’ personal experiences inform in-class discussions of unfolding events, including debates on the conduct of military leadership and “what constitutes a proportional response to violence,” said Jessica Wolfendale, PhD, professor of philosophy and the program’s co-director.
“When students in the class hear what it’s like to actually serve, they better understand the nature of the military and the challenges its personnel face,” she said. “And for military personnel and veterans, it’s important and useful for them to hear perspectives from outside of the insulation of their profession.
“This intermingling of viewpoints really broadens everyone’s understanding of the ethical issues around the use of military force,” she added.
Sarah Wu | Photo by Angelo Merendino
That’s been the experience of Sarah Wu, a senior double- majoring in philosophy and political science. She is also earning a master’s degree in military ethics.
“I better understand the ethical dilemmas combatants and veterans face by talking with classmates who have enlisted or been deployed in the military,” said Wu, who plans to enter a JD-PhD program in the fall to study ethics and legal philosophy. “Studying the theory about just wars has helped me better understand core values and principles critical to international laws governing conduct in armed conflicts.”
On Sept. 11, 2001, Joel Giese was working at the White House. The terrorist attacks, subsequent wars and his experiences working for the Executive Office of the President contributed to his decision to enter the seminary and join the Army Chaplain Corps in 2004.
A member of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, a conservative Christian denomination, Giese—like his fellow chaplains—remains faithful to his religious beliefs and duty- bound by the Army’s chain of command.
“Sometimes, there is tension between our duties,” said Giese, a student in the military ethics program.
Joel Giese | Photo by Angelo Merendino
In his two decades of military service, Giese has served in more than 40 countries—deploying throughout the Middle East, the Pacific and Africa—including to combat zones. Along the way, he said, he has counseled soldiers from a range of beliefs and backgrounds, embodying ethical principles such as respect, compassion and inclusivity.
The knowledge and insights he gains from the military ethics program will shape how he teaches junior officers at Army bases in Virginia after graduating.
“The program provides a common framework and language for discussing ethical issues that we can draw on as reference points in discussions with commanders and others,” Giese said. “This creates clarity and consistency, so we’re on the same page.”
Giese believes the education chaplains receive in the program will give them more credibility and, thus, a greater voice to affect ethical decision making in the military.
“A general officer does not have the time or the capacity to be an expert at everything, yet they still have to make decisions that can impact thousands of lives,” Giese said. “Often a legal decision says we can use a tactic or system. The degree provides the ethicist a voice to answer the question of should we use it.”
For O’Neal, the program has provided perspective on what he called “the many” leadership failings he has encountered in the military, “which haven’t always had my best interest at heart.” And, he said, it “has been good at helping me think through how I can correct what I’ve experienced by being a different kind of leader for others moving forward.”
While the military’s officer corps receives ethics training at the undergraduate level at institutions such as the Naval Academy and the United States Military Academy at West Point, CWRU’s degree program is more advanced and complements and supplements those efforts. It enables students to take classes in many disciplines and involving multiple perspectives; integrates civilian and military students; and influences how chaplains and other military personnel may teach their fellow service members.
The master’s program also has brought increased visibility and validation to the military ethics field and contributed to its emergence as a distinct academic discipline—separate from international relations, philosophy and other related fields.
“The more good voices we can train to focus on preserving humanity—both literally and in the sense of not annihilating the humanity inside ourselves or other people—the better,” French said. “Strong ethical leadership acts as a deterrent against unethical behavior.”
“It’s important to teach students— whether they are civilians or service members—how to contribute to and drive complex ethical conversations.” —Shannon French, co-director of CWRU’s military ethics program