Applied Ethics

Framing ethical perspectives

Applied ethics refers to the practical applications of the moral principles that govern behavior. Carnegie Council focuses on this field, mostly through the realm of international affairs, by identifying and addressing the most critical ethical issues of today and tomorrow. Our initiatives, content, and experts analyze the way that governments, institutions, and individuals interact and make choices on global issues, such as climate change, emerging technology, and governance.

Featured Applied Ethics Resources

Practical conversations, decision analysis, and more

JUL 5, 2023 Article

A Framework for the International Governance of AI

Carnegie Council, in collaboration with IEEE, proposes a five-part AI governance framework to enable the constructive use of AI.

APR 12, 2022 Podcast

Surveillance Tech's Infinite Loop of Harms, with Chris Gilliard

In this discussion with Senior Fellow Arthur Holland Michel, Chris Gilliard explains why the arc of surveillance technology and novel AI bends toward failures that ...

Explore Our Applied Ethics Resources

Zhang on a local mining road in Boké, Guinea, together with Mamady Koivogui, executive director of a local NGO, Association Mines Sans Pauvreté (far left) and local residents.

FEB 20, 2019 Article

Jingjing Zhang: Greening China's Globalization

Born in China, environmental lawyer Jingjing Zhang is working to hold China accountable for the negative impacts of its overseas investment and construction projects, the ...

FEB 14, 2019 Podcast

Global Ethics Weekly: Human Rights on the Ground, with Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox

Quinnipiac's Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox discusses her work researching the conception of human rights in a community in rural India. She tells the story of Chaya Kakade, ...

FEB 13, 2019 Transcript

Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems: Can the International Community Agree on an Approach?

"It is not very often that a United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions makes headlines or that his/her report gets ...

FEB 6, 2019 Video

Ethics in Business: In Their Own Words, with Cargill's David MacLennan

David MacLennan, chairman and CEO of Cargill, discusses the role of ethics in his work leading an agriculture, food, and nutrition company that is present ...

JAN 29, 2019 Podcast

Toward a Human-Centric Approach to Cybersecurity, with Ronald Deibert

Discussions around cybersecurity often focus on the security and sovereignty of states, not individuals, says Professor Ronald Deibert, founder and director of University of Toronto's ...

JAN 24, 2019 Podcast

Global Ethics Weekly: Ethics as a Campaign Platform, with Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox

Quinnipiac University's Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox speaks about her 2018 campaign for state representative in Connecticut, which she lost by a slim margin. After months of speaking to ...

Devin Stewart and Ian Bremmer. CREDIT: Amanda Ghanooni.

JAN 16, 2019 Podcast

Top Risks and Ethical Decisions 2019, with Ian Bremmer

The wide array of global issues--more than 90 percent of them--that Eurasia Group follows are now headed in the wrong direction in 2019. Eurasia Group president Ian ...

Teddy Roosevelt in 1910. CREDIT: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TR_smiling_in_automobile.tif">American Press Association / Public Domain</a>

JAN 8, 2019 Podcast

The Crack-Up: Teddy Roosevelt's Complicated Legacy, with Patty O'Toole

This podcast is part of "The Crack-Up," a special series about the events of 1919, a year that in many ways shaped the 20th century and ...

JAN 3, 2019 Article

Ethics and the Syria Withdrawal

Referencing an "Atlantic" article by Conor Fridersdorf, Nikolas Gvosdev goes over some important and overlooked ethical questions surrounding Trump's decision to withraw U.S. troops ...

L to R: David Roscoe, Bart Selman, Francesca Rossi, Stuart Russell, Wendell Wallach. CREDIT: Amanda Ghanooni

DEC 7, 2018 Podcast

Control and Responsible Innovation of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence's potential for doing good and creating benefits is almost boundless, but equally there is a potential for doing great harm. This panel discusses ...