Moral Injury: Toward an International Perspective

Moral injury is defined by David Wood, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, as a violation of one’s fundamental sense of right and wrong which often affects members of the military as they transition back to civilian life. How can we understand and treat the complex impact of the post-9/11 wars on soldiers, veterans and others? How should the military train and prepare those going into war zones to deal with morally difficult or ambiguous situations? Just as PTSD transformed social debate on the effects of war, the idea of moral injury promises to deepen our capacity to make sense of the experience of armed conflict.

To discuss these issues, New America welcomes Brad Allenby, Ed Barrett, William P. Nash, David Wood, and Rosa Brooks. New America thanks ASU President Michael Crow, Andrea Ellner, and Tom Frame for their video contributions. New America is pleased to host this event in cooperation with PLuS Alliance members: Arizona State University, King College London, and the University of New South Wales.

Arizona State University's Center on the Future of War, King's College London, and the University of New South Wales Canberra have joined together to create the PLuS Alliance, a partnership dedicated to solving global challenges around health, social justice, sustainability, and technology and innovation. 

8:15 am – 8:45 am Sign in/coffee 

8:45 am– 9:00 am Welcome 

Michael Crow, @michaelcrow
President, Arizona State University 

9:00 am – 9:15 am Overview of project, Center, PLuS Alliance 

Brad Allenby
President’s Professor, Affiliated Faculty, Center on the Future of War, Arizona State 

9:15 am – 9:40 am Video Presentation 

Andrea Ellner
Lecturer in Defence Studies, King’s College London 

Tom Frame, @ACSACS_UNSW
Director, Australian Centre for the Study of Armed Conflict and Society Professor, University of New South Wales Canberra 

9:40 am – 11:00 am Panel on Moral Injury 

David Wood, @woodwriter
ASU Senior Future of War Fellow at New America Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Author, What Have We Done, The Moral Injury of Our Longest Wars 

Brad Allenby
President’s Professor, Affiliated Faculty, Center on the Future of War, Arizona State University 

Ed Barrett
Director of Research at the U.S. Naval Academy's Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership 

William P. Nash
Director of Psychological Health, United States Marine Corps 

Moderator: 

Rosa Brooks, @brooks_rosa
Senior Future of War Fellow at New America Associate Dean and Professor, Georgetown University Law Center Author, How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon 

11:00 am – 11:15 am Closing

Daniel Rothenberg
Co-Director, Center on the Future of War, Professor of Practice, Arizona State University, Senior Fellow, New America