Some of the questions the conference will explore are as follows:  Who can be assassination targets?  Is the category of legitimate targets limited to belligerents?  Or are there individuals who, as civilians, nevertheless make themselves into legitimate targets of assassination by threatening central interests of the United States?  Who is permitted to do the assassinating?  And what is the status of targeted killings gone awry?  If moral and legal mistakes are made, do the resulting acts of assassination count as war crimes?  What determines a person’s status as a combatant?  Is it morally relevant that remote-controlled machines are used to assassinate targets? Is preemptive killing legitimate in this context?  And if so, what is the permissible scope of preemptive killing?  What is the relation between targeted killing and self-defense?  Does societal self-defense follow parallel principles to personal self-defense? And finally, what is the status of targeted killing according to traditional just war theory?