What does warfare look like if you apply Design for Values and technological innovation?
Applying Design for Values to modern warfare is a way to make several points at once. None of the points are that modern war is other than an abhorrent aberration which should not exist within a sapient species:
War is inhumane: Smart bombs are not smart. New terms such as Surgical Strike and Collateral Damage do not reattach limbs, restore life or ease the suffering of the wounded. All they may do is ease the conscious of the host nations that provide the weapons of war. Weapons manufacturers and military contractors make huge profits from Islamic countries.
Design for Values applied to the execution of armed: New smart bombs and missiles adhering to Design for Values principles would recognise the presence of unarmed children and other non-combatantants and refuse to detonate in such situations. New Design for Value warfare strategies would not include mass starvation and rape as instruments of conflict, and of course the corollary, would not encourage such strategies to continue in order to gain international pressure on a regional or national opponent. Design for Values would fuse the conduct of business, innovation, armed conflict and Islamic values (prohibiting the targeting of civilians) into a joint strategy that recognises that humans will always have conflict but that conflict can become less inhumane.
A new Industry with new employment:
As most large scale weapons manufacture is conducted outside Muslim countries this strategy has the added benefit of creating a new industry with associated employment opportunities. It allows Muslim countries to become the masters of their own destruction as opposed to being the fuel for the prosperity of other nations. If you would like to read more about innovation and warfare you can visit the Foreign Policy Research Institute for some thought provoking articles, though it may be appropriate to also fact-check so you can be an 'Informed Consumer'.
Kabul Convention of 2020?
It's time for an update, it is a long time and a long way to Geneva and it's Convention. It is time to have an Islamic Convention to set new rules and goals for warfare, rules guided by Design for Values, guided by your values. If by some stroke of good fortune this serves to reduce inter-Islam violence so much the better though the world will no doubt have an insatiable appetite for the new output of an Islamic smart arms industry.
Design for Values is not just about healthy halal burgers! It can be an Islamic 'Moon Shot'. A farfetched idea that if successful can change the world for the better. The incredible challenge US President John F. Kennedy made to his country seemed impossible in 1962 but he inspired people to make the impossible become possible and improved life in so many ways. This was not achieved by one speech. Programs received massive financial funding. Priorities were aligned with the mission and a culture of possibilities was created and lived within. Our challenge is to inspire people to think in new ways, to think new ideas and to work tirelessly to make those ideas real. To do this we have to create a culture of possibilities where risk taking, failure, and alternate thinking are protected. Humane warfare is a ridiculous idea, a 'Loonshot' perhaps, as described by Safi Bahcall in the book of the same name. Human warfare is equally ridiculous.
(Note: The speech which introduced the US Lunar program was written by Theodore Chaikin Sorensen, a Presidential adviser and speech writer)