The aim of this 2-day international conference is to examine ethical and social perspectives on the impact of technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous systems on the military, warfare, and the Just War tradition. There will be a strong focus on applied military ethics, but researchers from any relevant fields are encouraged to apply.
The conference will take place 26–27 February 2026, in person, at the Royal Military Academy (Brussels), the military university for Belgian Defence. We are pleased to present our keynote speakers: Lode Dewaegheneire, Sofie van de Maarel, Elke Schwartz and Nathan Wood.
We welcome abstracts, blinded for peer-review, for 25-minute presentations addressing topics including (but not limited to):
- The impact of new technologies on the character of warfare, military professions, etc.
- The impact of new technologies on military virtues
- Virtue ethics versus duty ethics in the military
- Military technology and Just War Theory
- Autonomous systems and responsibility
- Military technology and human-machine interaction
- AI ethics guidelines for the defence sector
- Approaches to the design and development of military technologies
- Use of AI for military decision making, e.g. AI-assisted targeting
- Insights from recent wars, conflicts and military operations
Application procedure:
Please submit your application in two documents
- an anonymized document containing the presentation title and abstract (300-400 words);
- a document containing the name(s), affiliation(s), and contact details of the author(s).
Submit these documents by email attachment, in any standard non-pdf file type (e.g. .docx, .rtf, .txt, .md, etc.), to andrew.rebera(at)mil.be. The deadline for submission is 19 September 2025.
Abstracts will undergo a blind peer-review process by the scientific committee of the conference. Final decisions will be announced by October 31 2025.
For further inquiries, please contact Andrew Rebera (andrew.rebera(at)mil.be).