Man against machine: Debates in the expert community on the lethal autonomous systems

In the recent years debates surrounding the autonomous weapons systems development and regulation have gained a new momentum. Despite the fact that the development of such type of weapons continues since the twentieth century, recent technological advances open up new possibilities for development of completely autonomous combat systems that will operate without human in-tervention. In this context, international community faces a number of ethical, legal, and regulatory issues. This paper examines the ongoing debates in both the Western and the Russian expert community on the challenges and prospects for using lethal autonomous systems. The author notes that Russian and Western discourses on most of the issues have very much in common and diff erences are found mainly in the intensity of debates — in the West they are much more ac-tive. In both cases the most active debates focus around two issues: the potential implications of fully autonomous weapons systems including the unclear line of accountability, and the prospects for international legal regulation of the use of lethal autonomous weapons. Both the Russian and the Western experts agree that the contemporary international humanitarian law is unable to handle the challenges posed by aggressive development of the lethal autonomous weapons. All this points to the need to adapt the international humanitarian law to the new realities, which, in turn, requires concerted actions from leading states and international organizations.

Methodology of regulation of new types of weapons by means of international humanitarian law: emergence and development

The purpose of the article is to identify the methodology, used in international humanitarian law for the regulation of new types of weapons. Under the settlement of the objectives of the article, regulation is understood as the establishment of permits, prohibitions and restrictions on the use of this type of weapon in accordance with the basic principles of international humanitarian law. The article is methodologically based on the works of foreign and Ukrainian researchers, devoted to the problems of the settlement of new weapons systems in international humanitarian law. The empirical basis of the article was formed by international treaties in the field of international humanitarian law and codified customs of this industry, as reflected in the codifications, developed by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The article establishes that in international humanitarian law there is an obligation for states to assess the compliance of new weapons systems with international humanitarian law. At the same time, this norm has two disadvantages. First, it is too abstract, which allows states to avoid the obligation to assess each time with reference to the fact that a certain type of weapon does not fall under the definition of a new type of weapon. Secondly, international humanitarian law does not contain specific mechanisms to hold violating states accountable. It is concluded, that it is necessary to revise the current international legal regulation of the obligation to assess new weapons systems in the direction of its concretization and strengthening of responsibility for non-compliance. Corresponding changes can be made to the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of 1977, or introduced by adopting a separate protocol.

La industria de defensa en el mundo: hechos estilizados y tendencias

As in other areas, technological transformations, along with their high speed, have been incorporated into weapons systems throughout the global defense industry. However, it is not possible to know to what extent the new technological leaderships are undermining the foundations of those that existed until now. Along with this, changes in the geo-political and geo-economics spheres are generating a reality in which aspects such as the international arms trade, the emergence of SMEs in the sector or, as far as the EU is concerned, the promotion of defense policy, transform the morphology and relationships between the agents that intervene in this market. What can be the future trends considering the main stylized facts that are observed today?

Maturing Autonomous Cyber Weapons Systems

This chapter identifies significant policy and military intersections between the evolving international cybersecurity and autonomous weapons systems (AWS) policy regimes that should receive deeper policy attention. So far, within policy discussions on lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS), there seems to have been less focus on related cyber implications compared with other policy questions. This is mirrored within the international cybersecurity policy community where AWS, maturing autonomous cyber technologies, and component technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) have not yet garnered extensive attention publicly. So far, most of the focus on AWS has centred on physical platforms for land, sea, air, space, and undersea, and not the cyber domain. Discussions surrounding AWS have generally been held under the rubric of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). Nevertheless, threat assessment reports and analysts are highlighting this subject more frequently. This chapter addresses these gaps by first unpacking the nature of so-called AWS and then highlighting a number of potential arms race considerations as well as consequences of the widespread adoption of autonomous technologies for warfare. It then proposes a framework to deal with the impact of autonomy on international security policies—namely strengthening technical safeguards and addressing the policy implications for international cyber stability. Lastly, the chapter argues for a need to ensure norm coherence and careful analysis of the implications arising from either banning or legitimizing maturing autonomous capabilities for international cybersecurity and AWS regimes.

Truth, Lies and New Weapons Technologies: Prospects for Jus in Silico?

This article tests the proposition that new weapons technology requires Christian ethics to dispense with the just war tradition (JWT) and argues for its development rather than dissolution. Those working in the JWT should be under no illusions, however, that new weapons technologies could (or do already) represent threats to the doing of justice in the theatre of war. These threats include weapons systems that deliver indiscriminate, disproportionate or otherwise unjust outcomes, or that are operated within (quasi-)legal frameworks marked by accountability gaps. The temptation to abrogate (L. abrogare—repeal, evade) responsibility to the machine is also a moral threat to the doing of justice in the theatre of war.