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21st Century Arms Control Challenges: Drones, Cyber Weapons, Killer Robots, And Wmds, Mary Ellen O'Connell
21st Century Arms Control Challenges: Drones, Cyber Weapons, Killer Robots, And Wmds, Mary Ellen O'Connell
Mary Ellen O'Connell
The world faces tough arms control challenges from preventing the development and use of weapons of mass destruction to regulating the new weapons of the computer revolution. This article considers what works in arms control. Using military force in violation of international law to destroy nuclear facilities, to stop weapons shipments, or to punish the use of prohibited weapons typically fails. Diplomacy paired with lawful counter-measures has the superior track record. Reviving the art of diplomacy and re-committing to authentic international law will pay dividends in peace and security.
Banning Autonomous Killing, Mary O'Connell
Banning Autonomous Killing, Mary O'Connell
Mary Ellen O'Connell
Scientific research on fully autonomous weapons systems is moving rapidly. At the current pace of discovery, such fully autonomous systems will be available to military arsenals within a few decades, if not a few years. These systems operate through computer programs that will both select and attack a target without human involvement after the program is activated. Looking to the law governing resort to military force, to relevant ethical considerations, as well as the practical experience of ten years of killing using unmanned systems (drones), the time is ripe to discuss a major multilateral treaty banning fully autonomous killing. Current …