The Asia-Pacific Chapter of the International Society for Military Ethics

In 1979, a group of military officers with a particular interest in professional ethics convened at the Hastings Center in New York, just across the Hudson River from the United States Military Academy.1 The delegation decided to host a conference the following year, at the Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. At this latter meeting, the Joint Services Commission on Professional Ethics (JSCOPE) was created. Annual meetings were held on the east coast of the United States for almost twenty-five years, principally at the National Defense University. In 2005, the group renamed to the International Society for Military Ethics (ISME), partially to remove confusion as to whether there was a government mandate for the project. The annual meetings moved to San Diego starting in 2008, where they were held for several years. More recently, they have been held at the University of Notre Dame (Indiana), as well as several east-coast locations. ISME has now found a new home at Case Western Reserve University (Ohio), where it will be based indefinitely.