ABSTRACT
This chapter examines several areas of dual-use neuroscience research: combat enhancement, warfighter therapy, and intelligence. It focuses on research in the United States, the neuroethical implications are the same for international contexts. The concept of national security promulgated after World War II entails the view that government should protect the state and its populace against various threats to their well-being. National security agencies charged with this task, including both military and intelligence organizations, have long relied on science and technology to carry out their missions. The worlds of science and security have fundamentally different goals and fundamentally different timelines and structures for achieving them. Military research interest in pharmacological cognitive enhancement pales in comparison to that for biotechnological enhancement. Just as in the pharmacological context, enhancement devices evolved from and are often equivalent to devices used for medical applications. Traumatic brain injury is a major risk to the cognitive and neurological health of warfighters.
