LETTER TO WILLIAM CASEY FROM (SANITIZED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85M00364R001903720012-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 14, 2008
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: March 2, 1983
• Content Type: LETTER

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STAT
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Aspen. Institute for Humanistic Studies 717 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10022
212 759.1053
Cable-Aspeninst New York
Telex-710 581 5508
(ASPENINST NYK)
March 2, 1983
William Casey
Director
C.I.A.
C.I.A. Building
Washington, D.C. 20505
83-1254
STAT
I
Dear Mr. Casey:
On behalf of the Aspen Institute and its. president, I have STAT
agreed to organize a study of ethical issues in current foreign policy concerns.
I found during my government work that many of our daily problems. had
profound ethical implications, but that there was rarely time to consider them.
Yet, as the Catholic Bishops have recently reminded us, we ignore such
issues at our peril.
Since returning to Harvard, I have been teaching and thinking about
ethics and international relations, and would now like to assemble a small
group to discuss a broader Aspen program involving the issues discussed below.
International politics is hard ground for implanting moral arguments for
a number of obvious reasons. Different cultures have different views of right
and wrong; there is no overall government to balance the claims of order and
justice,.and there is an extra complexity in causation that arises from having
to consider three levels of analysis (the individual, the state, the system of
states). Nonetheless, moral arguments are constantly used in international
relations, and we can judge them by their logic, their consistency, and their
consequences.
There are (at least) three major clusters of issues (and sub-issues) around
which somewhat different moral arguments have developed: the basic security
dilemma related to balance of power; collective vs. individual rights and inter-
vention across borders; and issues of distributive justice from a global perspective.
I think the most fruitful current issue for close analysis is the role of nuclear
weapons. Can we consider such weapons morally justifiable if "the fate of the
earth" is at stake? Are there real alternatives to nuclear deterrence? If not,
are there different ethical considerations in choices among doctrines and force
postures (as was sometimes asserted during the SALT debate)? If nuclear
deterrence has produced prudence. in U.S.-Soviet relations, would it not do so
for other countries? What are the moral grounds for discouraging proliferation?
These questions only begin to illustrate the range of issues that can be explored
in this area.
A second area of concern is intervention across state borders that
affects individual and collective rights. States can be seen as a collective
form of individual rights if citizens have developed a common life within
state boundaries. Such rights deserve respect as do individual rights. But
what do we do when the two types of rights come into conflict? Are we
justified in focusing only on individual human rights? To what extent? What
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forms of intervention or involvement across state borders are justifiable
and what are not? What conditions (genocide, preventive war, balancing
prior interventions, etc.) justify which types of intervention? Again, these
questions illustrate only the tip of the iceberg of problems congealed under
this rubric.
A third cluster of problems relates to distributive justice-who gets
what in the world. National boundaries define inequality as well as liberty,
and equality is a prime value of twentieth century world culture-such as it
is. If we posit a veil of ignorance a la Rawls, to reach a theory of justice,
why do we assume we would know our nationality? If we would not, we would
certainly favor greater international equality than now exists. But this cos-
mopolitan approach which challenges the moral justification of national boun-
daries flies in the face of the way the world is organized. Taken literally, it
could lead to conflict, war, and a disorder that would defeat prospects of
justice. Are there intermediate positions? Do different degrees of trans-
national interdependence have implications for. intermediate positions?
Should some issues related to basic human needs (food, shelter, health) be
treated differently than others in consideration of distributive justice? How
can such distinctions inform policy choices? How can they be communicated
in a democracy?
Given the current resurgence in concern about the morality of nuclear
weapons, I suggest starting with the nuclear issue. Questions that I propose
for discussion are the following:
1. Why the current resurgence of concern in the U.S. and Europe?
2. How has the debate changed since the early '60s?
3. The ethics of Deterrence: Intent vs. Consequences
4. The Ethics of Doctrine and Force Postures
5. Non-Use and No First-Use Debates
I now write to invite you to join a small group for discussion and dinner,
beginning 4:30 p.m. on April 4, 1983. We will meet in the Board Room at the
Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 East Capitol Street, Washington, D.C. The
entrance is at the corner of East Capitol and Second Streets. We shall ad-
journ in time to catch the last shuttle. I hope you will join us. If you are
coming from outside Washington and can cover your transportation costs,
we will be grateful since this exploratory phase is not funded. If not, the
Institute will reimburse you for travel expenses.
Please respond to Senior Fellow of the Aspen Institute,
717 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10022, 212/759-1053.
Sincerely,
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