2024 Ethics Awards Dinner
The annual Vice Admiral William P. Lawrence Ethics Award dinner celebrated the Naval Academy’s commitment to moral leadership. The event honored midshipmen, faculty, and leaders for their ethical contributions. Highlights included speeches from Vice Admiral Davids, USN, and Lieutenant General Whistler, USMC (Ret.), recognition of midshipmen achievements, and the presentation of the Admiral Charles R. […]
McCain 2024 opening with GEN Allen
The 2024 McCain Conference opens by welcoming attendees, including cadets, midshipmen, and faculty from various military academies. The keynote speaker highlights the importance of the Stockdale Center for leadership, ethics, and character development at the Naval Academy. The conference focus on military ethics and the challenges facing liberal democracies. Speakers are chosen for their diverse […]
Economics Panel
The 2024 McCain Conference features a panel on economic challenges, highlighting federal debt and public health crises. Dr. Anne Case discusses the rise in deaths of despair linked to economic conditions and the decline in life expectancy among less-educated Americans. Mark Goldwein addresses the escalating federal interest payments on debt, emphasizing the need for fiscal […]
Technology Panel
This panel discussion addressed how AI and technology affect liberal democracy. Key concerns included AI’s role in epistemic bubbles, nudge algorithms, micro-targeting, and generative AI’s impact on belief formation and political agency. Possible solutions included regulation, third-party audits, and promoting intellectual virtues in education. Sunstein’s presentation explored group dynamics, showing how polarization and extremism often […]
Religion Panel
The 2024 McCain Conference at the Stockdale Center focused on technology, liberalism, and religion in public discourse. Professors discussed how religion influences ethical leadership, military decisions, and democracy. They highlighted debates on whether religious arguments can guide public policy and explored concerns over religious pluralism in a liberal society. A recurring theme was balancing religious […]
Civic Virtues
The discussion at the Stockdale Center addressed civic virtue, its decline, and ways to cultivate it in liberal democracies. Peter Berkowitz critiqued McIntyre’s views on liberalism, arguing virtues like civility and tolerance are compatible with democracy. Yuval Levin emphasized the role of institutions—families, schools, and religious communities—in fostering these virtues, while warning of the current […]
Liberalism’s Future
Francis Fukuyama delivered a defense of classical liberalism, defining it as the belief in universal human dignity, rule of law, and limitations on state power. He addressed critiques of liberalism from both the right (neoliberalism) and the left (woke liberalism), highlighting their extensions into harmful territories. He argued that while neoliberalism can be reversed through […]
Disinformation and Lawfare (McCain 2021 – Day 8)
McCain Conference 2021 – Day 8 This session focuses on the ethics surrounding disinformation and lawfare, with discussions led by experts on the complex challenges posed by misinformation campaigns and the use of legal systems as a tool for manipulation in international conflicts. The conversation highlights the ethical dilemmas in distinguishing between legitimate legal actions […]
Ethics, Cyber, Election Manipulation, George Lucas, Jens David Ohlin (McCain 2021 – Day 7)
McCain Conference 2021 – Day 7 This session focuses on the ethical implications of cyber operations and election manipulation. George Lucas and Jens David Ohlin discussed how cyber activities, especially those aimed at influencing elections, challenge traditional ethical frameworks. They explored the difficulties in defining and enforcing norms in cyberspace and the potential consequences of […]
Hostage Taking and Media Warfare, Tami Meisels, Dr. Michael Gross (McCain 2021 – Day 6)
McCain Conference 2021 – Day 6 Tami Meisels and Dr. Michael Gross examined the ethical implications of hostage-taking and media warfare. They discussed the complexities of dealing with hostages in conflict zones, the moral challenges posed by terrorist demands, and the manipulation of media for strategic purposes. The conversation highlighted the need for ethical guidelines […]