Debate Wins Annual Military Ethics Case Competition

The Ethics Debate Team won the fifth Annual Military Ethics Case Competition at the Naval Academy. This is the first time USMA has won this competition. This achievement is especially remarkable because the debaters this year were two plebes and a yearling. CDTs Elijah Brown '21, AnnMarie Moolenaar '21, and Jake Hohmann '20 worked diligently under the guidance of CIC Reed Johnson '19 to create a superb presentation and develop sufficient comprehension of the case to handle judge's questions with ease. The Military Ethics Case Competition brings the nation's service academies together to compare their responses to a selected case. This year, the case imagined an elaborate cyber-attack by North Korea against the United States and its Allies is underway. Each team was asked to create a 20-minute briefing for US Cyber Command that assesses the nature of the threat and uses ethical, legal, and strategic lenses to recommend an appropriate cyber response. The team worked intensely to understand the history and nature of the North Korean regime, the geopolitics of conflict with North Korea, cyber warfare and the specific vulnerabilities of the North Korean regime, and the complex ethics and law of cyber war. In beating Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in a head-to-head competition, USMA's Ethics Debate Team brought home the Military Ethics Cup.