On September 25th, the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, TU Delft Safety & Security Institute and The Delft Digital Ethics Centre are pleased to host the launch of ‘Ethics of National Security Intelligence Institutions‘ and ‘Cognitive Warfare: Grey Matters In The Ethics Of Information Conflict’, together with the author Dr. Adam Henschke, Assistant Professor at the Philosophy Section of the University of Twente.
During the book launch HCSS strategic analyst Sofia Romansky will present the discussion on ‘Cognitive Warfare: Grey Matters In The Ethics Of Information Conflict’.
The ethical tensions of intelligence practices and institutions are notoriously difficult to address given their opacity, exceptional conditions, and distinctness from open conflict. Join us as we dive deeper into the conversation in our rapidly evolving digital society. We have a limited capacity, so please register via the event page!
- Date: September 25th, 2024, 16:00-18:00
- Location: The Hague Campus of the TU Delft
- Registration link: https://www.aanmelder.nl/157389/registration
The ethical tensions of intelligence practices and institutions are notoriously difficult to address given their opacity, exceptional conditions, and distinctness from open conflict. Additionally, developments in technologies like AI, biometrics, and encryption change how intelligence can be done. Henschke’s new books address not only the ethics of intelligence and information operations, but the institutions that conduct them, the technologies they use, and the other actors they interact with. Further, Henschke argues that without norms for these ethically exceptional activities, liberal democracies risk sliding into the abuses of unrestrained authoritarian states.
Intelligence and information warfare are among the most opaque of state activities, often shrouded in secrecy and concealed from both policy makers and the public. Philosophically, to treat these institutions and practices as the subject of ethical scrutiny invites skepticism on its own. Some even describe intelligence ethics as an oxymoron, as though it is so exceptional as to be exempt. Meanwhile, theorists struggle to translate ethical concepts traditionally at home in the grey area of intelligence and information operations which fall outside both diplomacy and open conflict. Handling these challenges, Henschke shows how a practice can be both exceptional to standard ethical norms but not exempt.
Henschke not only anticipates the authoritarian risks of intelligence and information operations, but gives an aspirational vision of how intelligence institutions should function. Henschke proposes a teleological and institutionally relative account, which centers the purposes of specific institutions, their goals, the roles of practitioners, and the specific tools they use.
Programme:
- 16:00 – 16:15 – Walk-in & Opening, Prof. Jeroen van den Hoven (TU Delft)
- 16:15 – 16:45 – Ethics of National Security Intelligence Institutions, Dr. Adam Henschke (TU Twente)
- 16:45 – 17:00 – Discussion Ethics of National Security Intelligence Institutions, Nicholas Johnston (TU Delft)
- 17:00 – 17:30 – Cognitive Warfare: Grey Matters In The Ethics Of Information Conflict, Dr. Adam Henschke
- 17:30 – 17:45 – Discussion Cognitive Warfare: Grey Matters In The Ethics Of Information Conflict, Sofia Romansky (HCSS)
- 17:45 – 18:15 – Discussion with the audience: Dr. Adam Henschke, Nicholas Johnston, Prof. Jeroen van den Hoven and Sofia Romansky
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