SEC347: The island nation of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean is known for its beautiful and fragile environment: Ethical Issues in Security Enforcement Assignment, SUSS, Singapore

Question 1

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:

The island nation of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean is known for its beautiful and fragile environment—a place to visit to get away from the problems of the rest of the world. What remains largely unknown and almost wholly unstudied is the fact that it is also a microcosm of most major crises that plague international order and security today: rising authoritarianism, religious militancy and increasing domestic conflict based on a perceived conflict between ‘Islam’ and ‘the West’.

The recent Maldivian socio-political affairs in relation to these political developments make the case for a focused academic analysis of the Maldives. It is argued that ignoring the Maldives in security analyses, especially in relation to South Asia, prevents such scholarship from being comprehensive or complete. (Azra Naseem. “The Honeymoon Is Over: the Maldives as a Growing Security Threat in the Indian Ocean.” Irish Studies in International Affairs, vol. 26, 2015, pp. 99–119).

Evaluate the extent to which the Government of the Islamic State of the Maldives has a Moral Obligation in security enforcement to its people and illustrate your answer with relevant concepts including political articulation, corruption, and links to unethical states that allow money laundering.

Question 2

Analyze the ethical dimension of the use of autonomous weapons and Artificial Intelligence on Civilian Populations in Afghanistan by US military forces. The main question that is being raised here is whether ethics and morality imply an inherent critique or restraint against strategic violence?