Operations of power in autonomous weapon systems: ethical conditions and socio-political prospects

The purpose of this article is to provide a multi-perspective examination of one of the most important contemporary security issues: weaponized, and especially lethal, artificial intelligence. This technology is increasingly associated with the approaching dramatic change in the nature of warfare. What becomes particularly important and evermore intensely contested is how it becomes embedded with and concurrently impacts two social structures: ethics and law. While there has not been a global regime banning this technology, regulatory attempts at establishing a ban have intensified along with acts of resistance and blocking coalitions. This article aims to reflect on the prospects and limitations, as well as the ethical and legal intensity, of the emerging regulatory framework. To allow for such an investigation, a power-analytical approach to studying international security regimes is utilized.

Reassurance

Reassurance seeks to alleviate causes of competition and conflict and induce accommodation and cooperation by reducing fear, mistrust, misunderstanding, and miscalculation between adversaries. This chapter identifies six forms of reassurance and assesses their value for managing Sino-American conflict: reciprocity, irrevocable commitment, self-restraint, norms of competition, limited security regimes, and trade-offs. All of them are useful for conflict management in four major areas of tension in the relationship: Taiwan, North Korea, Asian maritime tensions and disputes, and the US alliance system in Asia. This analysis of China’s response to the US alliance system suggests an additional form of reassurance: authority sharing.