¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥

8-9 June 2016, Kingston, ON

2016 Workshop Report [PDF 508kb]

The topic of Human Performance Enhancement (HPE) is one that is riddled with complexity as it presents a number of unique social, psychological, and physiological challenges; challenges which are exacerbated when applied to the defence and security sector. Examining these challenges was the primary focus of a meeting held in Kingston, Ontario in September 2015. Entitled The Future Canadian Soldier and Enhancement of Human Performance: Research meets Policy, the workshop prepared the ground for further research by gathering both scholars and policy experts from a variety of disciplines to assess the current developments in human enhancement as it relates to the military. The main findings of the meeting were as follows:

1. Establish a research program: a foundation upon which future scholarship can be built. This is accomplished by drawing on the many existing research fields which address human enhancement and bringing them together. In short, the human enhancement puzzle demands a multidisciplinary approach;
2. Assess new enhancement programs against both their short- and long-term costs. Moreover, these costs are a combination of social, physiological, and psychological factors;
3. Broaden the study of enhancement to include existing resilience initiatives, and
4. Balance operational goals with the ethical complexities lying behind the issue of enhancement. Policy-makers should neither eschew enhancement outright nor adopt it wholesale. Rather, implementation needs to be considered, deliberate, and limited.

With these initial findings in mind, the goal of this second meeting is to continue an in-depth discussion around these four themes of establishing, assessing, broadening, and balancing with a view to producing an edited, scholarly volume with McGill-Queen’s University Press.

The Future Canadian Soldier and Enhancement of Human Performance: Research meets policy

17-18 September 2015, Kingston, ON

A soldier’s limits are constantly being tested in battle. Whether one thinks back 100 years to World War I or more recently, to the War in Afghanistan, the psychological and physical effects of war are always profound. Technological and medical innovations have certainly changed our expectations about military resilience, but just how far should a soldier’s limits be pushed? Western governments manage the risks of war by acquiring capabilities to protect soldiers from harm and to increase overall endurance during demanding missions. Although often successful, the results are not always as intended. The underlying trade-off is that any kind of human performance enhancement can imperil the health of individual soldiers for the sake of greater military effectiveness.

Recent innovations in the realm of performance enhancement appear straight out of  science fiction: the integration of exoskeletons, robots and drones for the most dangerous tasks; and biological and chemical enhancements to push human performance. These capabilities will increasingly be used in future Canadian military operations. While giving our soldiers supra-normal abilities and integrating their actions with fully automated drones improves combat effectiveness, there are moral, ethical, legal and health implications involved. This workshop, entitled “ The Future Canadian Soldier and Enhancement of Human Performance: Research meets Policy“ will gather scholars and policy experts from multidisciplinary fields to assess the merits of various current developments in military-focused Human Performance Enhancement.

• U.S. Army Combined Arms Center. (2014). The Human Dimension White Paper: A Framework for Optimizing Human Performance [White Paper]. Retrieved from U.S. Army Combined Arms Center website:
• U.S. Army TRADOC. (2006). The U.S. Army Human Dimension Concept (Publication No. 525-3-7).
• U.S. Army TRADOC. (2014). U.S. Army Operating Concept: Win in a Complex World (Publication No. 525-3-1). Retrieved from
• U.S. Army TRADOC. (2006). Soldier as a System (Publication No. 525-97). Retrieved from
• DND, Directorate of Land Concepts and Design. (2011). Designing Canada’s Army of Tomorrow: A Land Operations 2021 Publication (Publication No. D2-282/2011E-PDF). Retrieved from:
• DND, Directorate of Land Concepts and Design. (2007). Land Operations 2021: Adaptive Dispersed Operations (Publication No. D2-188/2007E). Retrieved from:
• Toward Land Operations 2021: Studies in Support of the Army of Tomorrow Force Employment Concept (Publication No. D2-188/1-2009E). Retrieved from:

• Defence R&D Canada. (2009). Understanding the Human Dimension in 21st Century Conflict/Warfare: Taking Care of the Front Line. Retrieved from
• Defence R&D Canada. (2013). A Framework for Appraising Individual Readiness for Deployment. Retrieved from
• Faulmuller, N., Maslen, H., and de Sio, S. (2013). The Necessity of Objective Standards for Moral Enhancement. American Journal of Bioethics, 4(4), 15-16.
• Faulmuller, N., Maslen, H., and de Sio, S. (2012). The Indirect Psychological Costs of Cognitive Enhancement. AJOB Neuroscience, 13(7), 45-47.
• Landolt, J. P. (2011). Human Research Ethics Considerations: A Precursor for Ethically Implementing Advanced Technologies Into NATO Military Operations. Canadian Military Journal 11(3), 14-21.
• Lin, P., Mehlman, M., and Abney, K. (2013). Enhanced Warfighters: Risk, Ethics, and Policy. The Greenwall Foundation, 2013.
• Michaud-Shields, M. (2014). Personal Augmentation – The Ethics and Operational Considerations of Personal Augmentation in Military Operations. Canadian Military Journal, 15(1), 24-33.
• Shunk, D. (2015). Ethics and the Enhanced Soldier of the Near Future. Military Review, January-February 2015, 91-98.
• U.S. Naval Academy (2010). New Warriors and New Weapons: The Ethical Ramifications of Emerging Military Technologies. Retrieved from