Educating the military through wargaming and computer games - Jo Brick

Law and the Future of War

In this episode, Dr Lauren Sanders speaks with Group Captain Jo Brick about the role of wargaming and technology in professional military education, and how computer games can be used to train military professionals in ethics and law.

Spoiler alert: they talk about Chidi from ‘The Good Place’ and the trolly problem, to highlight how the practical application of ethics is critical to creating good military decision makers. They traverse some of the challenges that technology creates in terms of desensitisation to violence, and the moral and ethical problems faced by people who conduct warfare by distance – such as drone operators - and how training and education can bridge that gap.

Group Captain Brick is a Legal Officer in the Royal Australian Air Force and currently the Chief of Staff at the Australian Defence College, Canberra. In addition to multiple operational deployments, she has previously been appointed as the Legal Advisor to the Chief of the Defence Force, and Legal Advisor to the Chief of Air Force, editor of The Strategy Bridge and The Central Blue, and is a Non-Resident Fellow of the Krulak Center, United States Marine Corps.

Further reading:

• ‘Kill the enemy, and don’t forget to buy milk on the way home – preparing for the ethical challenges of remote operations in ‘Forever Wars’, on The Forge
• Remote Warfare and the Erosion of the Military Profession | Joint Air Power Competence Centre (japcc.org)
• Reaper Force – Inside Britain’s Drone Wars, Peter Lee (Allen & Unwin, 2019)
• #BruteCast podcast: Military Ethics and Wargaming, Krulak Center for Innovation & Future Warfare