Frowe Wins $1.7M Grant on Ethics of Deterrence

Helen Frowe, professor of philosophy at Stockholm University and director of the Stockholm Centre for the Ethics of War and Peace, has been named one of the 2024 Wallenberg Scholars by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

The scholarship includes a $1.7 million grant for her project on the Ethics of Deterrence.

Here’s a description of the project:

Despite its central role in international affairs (and, indeed, domestic politics), deterrence remains surprisingly under-theorised in the ethics of war and in moral and political philosophy more broadly. For example, although deterrence is often cited as a justification for war in political debates, this topic is largely neglected in the substantial body of work produced on the ethics of war in the last twenty years. While there are significant bodies of work on deterrent punishment and nuclear deterrence, these seem ill-suited to evaluating the full range of domestic and international deterrent mechanisms, which span from hostile immigration policies to waging war. This project aims to develop a broad, unified philosophical account of the ethics of deterrence that will shed light on a number of moral and political issues.

The Wallenberg Scholars grant program “was implemented because researchers need long-term funding without the distraction of pressure to secure external grants in order to carry out world-class research.” It provides five years of funding.