Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Part of: Synthesis digital library of engineering and computer science.

Series from website.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 93-105).

1. The close alignment of engineering and warfare -- 1.1 Direct and indirect connections: engineering, warfare, militarism -- 1.2 What is engineering? -- 1.2.1 Engineering as a domain of knowledge -- 1.2.2 Engineering as a set of practices -- 1.2.3 Engineering as a profession -- 1.2.4 Engineering as an ideology -- 1.3 Engineering's surprising silence on warfare -- 1.3.1 Why the silence? --

2. The ethics of war -- 2.1 Do engineers have special ethical responsibilities around warfare? -- 2.2 Just war theory -- 2.2.1 Jus ad bellum, "Justice of war": when is it just to go to war? -- 2.2.2 Jus in bello, "Justice in war": how can war be fought justly? -- 2.2.3 Just war and engineering ethics --

3. Engineering integrity -- 3.1 What is integrity? -- 3.1.1 Integrity as self-integration -- 3.1.2 Integrity as maintenance of identity -- 3.1.3 Integrity as standing for something -- 3.1.4 Integrity as moral purpose -- 3.1.5 Integrity as a virtue -- 3.2 Integrity and social structure -- 3.2.1 Structures of alienation --

4. Historical entwinements: from colonial conflicts to cold war -- 4.1 Birth of the military-industrial complex -- 4.2 The military-industrial-academic complex -- 4.2.1 Long histories, global histories -- 4.3 Social history of the military-industrial-academic complex -- 4.3.1 From military technologies to socio-economic practices -- 4.3.2 From socio-economic practices to technoscientific research -- 4.3.3 Big social science --

5. Historical entwinements, post-cold war -- 5.1 "Soft kill" weapons research -- 5.1.1 The rise of non-lethal weaponry -- 5.1.2 Civilian crowd control -- 5.2 Non-lethal weapons research comes of age -- 5.2.1 Second-generation soft-kill weaponry -- 5.3 The increasing depersonalization of violence -- 5.4 DARPA's spiral of innovation -- 5.4.1 Military technology proliferation -- 5.4.2 Contemporary military research funding --

6. Responding to militarism in engineering -- 6.1 Historic responses: anti-war engineers -- 6.1.1 Anti-militarism reform efforts -- 6.1.2 Humanitarian reform efforts -- 6.2 Ethical challenges of contemporary warfare -- 6.2.1 The hidden violence of depersonalized war -- 6.2.2 The blurring of military targets -- 6.3 Contemporary responses to engineering and war -- 6.3.1 Engineering for peace and justice -- 6.3.2 Engineering for sustainable community development --

7. Conclusion: facing the entwinement of engineering and war -- Additional resources -- References -- Author biographies.

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This book investigates the close connections between engineering and war, broadly understood, and the conceptual and structural barriers that face those who would seek to loosen those connections. It shows how military institutions and interests have long influenced engineering education, research, and practice and how they continue to shape the field in the present. The book also provides a generalized framework for responding to these influences useful to students and scholars of engineering, as well as reflective practitioners. The analysis draws on philosophy, history, critical theory, and technology studies to understand the connections between engineering and war and how they shape our very understandings of what engineering is and what it might be. After providing a review of diverse dimensions of engineering itself, the analysis shifts to different dimensions of the connections between engineering and war. First, it considers the ethics of war generally and then explores questions of integrity for engineering practitioners facing career decisions relating to war. Next, it considers the historical rise of the military-industrial-academic complex, especially from World War II to the present. Finally, it considers a range of responses to the militarization of engineering from those who seek to unsettle the status quo. Only by confronting the ethical, historical, and political consequences of engineering for warfare, this book argues, can engineering be sensibly reimagined.

Also available in print.

Title from PDF title page (viewed on January 13, 2014).