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 ...

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SEP 6, 2017 Podcast

The Driver in the Driverless Car with Vivek Wadhwa

What are the social and ethical implications of new technologies such as widespread automation and gene editing? These innovations are no longer in the realm ...

SEP 5, 2017 Podcast

Making Ethics Matter in 2017

"Ethics will be found in people of good will who believe in constructive responses to hard policy challenges. Ethics will be demonstrated by those who ...

Denzel Washington and Angela Bassett in <i>Malcolm X</i>. CREDIT: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104797/mediaviewer/rm105033728">Warner Bros.</a>

AUG 29, 2017 Article

Ethics on Film: Discussion of "Malcolm X"

Malcolm X is seen by some as a symbol of the enduring struggle for equal rights for all human beings; but for others his legacy ...

"Baker" explosion, part of U.S. military's Operation Crossroads. Bikini Atoll, Micronesia, July 1946. CREDIT: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Operation_Crossroads_Baker_Edit.jpg">U.S. Deptartment of Defense</a>

AUG 4, 2017 Podcast

Scott D. Sagan on the Nuclear Necessity Principle

Major changes must be made if U.S. nuclear war plans are to conform to the principles of just war doctrine and the law of ...

JUL 21, 2017 Podcast

Alexander Klimburg on "The Darkening Web: The War for Cyberspace"

In the West we view cyber threats as largely a technical issue, while in Russia and China they see it in terms of propaganda, information ...

JUL 16, 2017 Publication

Ethics in International Affairs: An Introduction

This introduction from Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal explains the point of view underlying the Council’s activities, discussing the connection between power and ethics.

CREDIT: <a hre="https://www.flickr.com/photos/felibrilu/4120677347/">felibrilu</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/">CC</a>)

JUN 29, 2017 Podcast

Amitai Etzioni on Avoiding War with China

The result of a war with China? "At best we have to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on weapons nobody will use which are ...

The timeless image of 'Earthrise' seen from the moon by U.S. astronauts in the 1960s and '70s. But would potentially risky geoengineering be a step too far in humanity's technical and scientific progression? CREDIT: <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1249.html">NASA</a>

JUN 28, 2017 Article

Humanitarians Hope for ‘Risk Management Framework’ on Geoengineering – a Carnegie Discussion

"The potential impacts of geoengineering remain so uncertain as to be quite unknown; what seems clear is that in a geoengineered future there would be ...

JUN 23, 2017 Podcast

Soldiers and Civilization: How the Profession of Arms Thought and Fought the Modern World into Existence

The soldier "is at once the most and the least civilized of persons," says Carnegie Council Senior Fellow Reed Bonadonna. In this thoughtful conversation, he ...

Air strike in Sana'a, May 2015. CREDIT: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Air_strike_in_Sana%27a_11-5-2015.jpg">Ibrahem Qasim</a>  (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en">CC</a>)

JUN 21, 2017 Podcast

Waleed Alhariri on the U.S. Covert Use of Lethal Force, and the Crisis in Yemen

Waleed Alhariri of the Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies discusses the Center's new report on U.S. covert attacks against al Qaeda and other radical ...