Ethics, Scientists, Engineers and the Military - Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability - page 348

personnel from the death and injury consequent on their actions and probably also
reduce the need to confront ethical issues.
The development and continued existence of modern military forces is totally
dependent on the participation of scientists and engineers in research and develop-
ment, training and production and maintenance of weapons systems. The increasing
sophistication and high-tech nature of modern weapons systems mean that the
withdrawal of engineers and scientists from military work would bring into ques-
tion the safety and effectiveness of existing weapons systems as well as prevent the
development and production of new or replacement weapons systems, including
more advanced nuclear weapons. While arms races may be motivated and fuelled by
political factors, they are crucially dependent on the involvement of scientists
and engineers to develop and construct totally new types of weapons systems and
weapons systems with additional high-performance features.
Justifi cations for military R&D are sometimes presented in terms of the associated
spin-offs, but as discussed in Sect. 6, these arguments have little substance. The
other side of this is the funding or use of the results of civilian R&D by the military.
Some of the problems and ethical issues associated with military involvement in
universities (in the UK) have been discussed in Sect. 7 . Acceptance of military
funding for apparently civilian research may raise many of the same issues with
regard to transparency and open publication and determination of the type of
research that takes place by the military. It can also contribute to increasing the
acceptability or respectability of military work, particularly if the researcher is
known to be concerned about ethical issues.
The social context of the research and the mission of the agency supporting it
generally have an effect on its goals, making it desirable that civilian research is
carried out in civilian institutions and with civilian funding. This is likely to result
in a higher degree of public accountability and scrutiny, whereas military-funded
research may be classifi ed (Lappé 1990 ) and is more easily co-opted. In addition,
military establishments are not charitable organisations and therefore generally
fund work because they expect it to have some military benefi t. For instance, the UK
Ministry of Defence (MoD) considers that its work in universities and polytechnics
is 'a vital contribution' to its military research programme (MoD 1990 ). One of the
problems is, of course, the lack of civilian funding for civilian research. However,
increasing acceptance of military funding, involvement and eventual militarisation
of civilian research will only worsen this problem.
Finally, there is the need to develop security policies based on peace building and
resolving underlying problems rather than based on fear and increasingly high-tech
weapons. As well as being more effective, this is likely to lead to societies which are
more human and better to live in.
Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr Stuart Parkinson of Scientists for Global
Responsibility for his very useful comments and suggestions and Peter McKenna for drawing
Fig. 11.1 .