Exploration of the ethical dimension of Network Enabled Operations : toward a philosophical framework of analysis

The transformation to Network Enabled Operations (NEO) is based on a vision of intensive military cooperation and information sharing by making use of network technologies. Underlying this vision are moral assumptions on how people will behave when operating in a network. The current status of NEO research leaves out the ethical dimension of working in a highly technologically mediated environment. Also research on military ethics does not take into account the way technology possibly affects moral behaviour. Therefore there is a need to develop a philosophical framework to analyse NEO. Philosophy of technology serves as a background to study the role of technology when making moral decisions. A framework developed by Herman Dooyeweerd called ‘multi aspects’ analysis is used to explore the coherence, unity and diversity in which NEO functions in practice. An analysis of NEO in terms of the 15 aspects is presented. Implications from this analysis for empirical research to study specific problems and ethical issues in NEO are discussed.