Postscript - Neurotechnology in National Security and Defense - page 279

18 Postscript

A Neuroscience and
National Security Normative
Framework for the
Twenty-First Century

William D. Casebeer

CONTENTS
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 279
The Primacy of the Brain Across All Phases of Conflict ....................................... 280
Not at Sea in a Sieve: Character, Consent, and Consequence ................................ 281
An Example: Strategic Rhetoric, Neurobiology, and Normative Evaluation ........ 282
Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 283
References .............................................................................................................. 283

INTRODUCTION
War and peace alike have both always been at least in part about the brain. As the
organ of human action—and the mediator of how environments, our own cog-
nitive processes, and our genetic inheritance shape our behavior—it must take
pride of place in any comprehensive study of the causes of conflict. Despite the
historical but sometimes hidden importance of the mind and brain for understand-
ing conflict, as the essays in this volume demonstrate, we as a polity (both local
and global) are only now coming to grips with the upshot of this fact for how we
prevent conflict and prevail in it quickly when it is morally obligatory. In this post-
script, I briefly discuss a framework for examining the practical and moral issues
involved in using neuroscience to research and develop national security technolo-
gies; I also quickly consider how some of the traditional tools of moral reasoning
can be used to resolve ethical issues or help us circumscribe the limits of what is
required, permissible, and forbidden as we develop national security-related neu-
roscience technologies.

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