On May 8, Carnegie Council held its sixth annual student conference as a virtual event on Zoom.
This year the Council received over 40 submissions from 24 universities and 8 countries. Out of these abstracts, 10 were chosen, including two group projects from Columbia University and United States Military Academy; one presenter had to withdraw due to personal reasons.
The winning presentation was by R. Langdon Ogburn of the United States Military Academy at West Point. His presentation titled "Drones and Warfare" examines the moral perspective of drone usage by militaries and proposes future paths towards a more ethical approach.
For more on Ogburn's research, read the written interview conducted by Carnegie Council program intern Richard Anar, who coordinated the conference.
As the winner, Ogburn received a one-year membership to the Council's Carnegie New Leaders program.
"This entire experience was incredibly valuable for me," says Ogburn. "I am thankful to Carnegie Council for adapting to current events in a way that enabled the participants to still present their research and learn from one another."
Other presentations touched on various ethical issues, including international borders within cybersecurity, comparative models to combat deforestation, online hate speech vs. free speech, peace-building in Afghanistan, the U.S.-China trade war and soy production in Brazil, banking corruption in South Korea, "responsibility to protect" in Africa, and using religion in Track II diplomacy. The judging panel was comprised of Adam Read-Brown, editor of Carnegie Council's quarterly journal Ethics & International Affairs, and Alex Woodson, digital content producer at Carnegie Council and host of the Global Ethics Weekly podcast. The presentations were judged on their originality, persuasiveness, logical coherence, and relevance to ethics.
Carnegie Council would like to thank all those who took part.
