Talking With the Military Ethics Professor Who Resigned in Protest

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Pauline Shanks Kaurin PhD. was, until recently, the Stockdale Chair for Professional Military Ethics at the U.S. Naval War College. She’d been there since 2018, teaching philosophy and ethics to U.S. military officers and the occasional civilian. Then came Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, and marching orders she said stifled academic freedom.
So she resigned.
On this episode of Angry Planet, Pauline talks us through her decision and tells us what she saw from the inside of one of the U.S. military’s most lauded academic institutions as the new administration seeks to restrict what’s taught in the classroom.
Disclosures and caveats
“A moral dilemma I couldn’t resolve”
On Obedience
Admiral James Stockdale
“We’re all in vacation mode.”
“The snitch line”
Purging books, telling professors what not to talk about
“I don’t want to be on Fox News”
It happened fast
Suggestions of pulling manuscripts at the editor
What happens to a military that isn’t taught honor and ethics?
Compliance versus deference
Avoiding discomfort as a policy position
Disagreements as combat
A heavy metal argument
The cost of taking a moral stand
“Everyday is ethics day”
A Military-Ethics Professor Resigns in Protest
Disgraceful Pardons: Dishonoring Our Honorable
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