Abstract
Throughout history, new military technologies have had profound ramifications: The rise of gunpowder and cannon created economies of scale that encouraged the emergence of nation-states, and Prussia used railroads to surprise the Austrians at Königgrätz, beginning the end of the Austrian Empire. Today, emerging military technologies - including unmanned aerial vehicles, directed-energy weapons, lethal autonomous robots, and cyber weapons - raise the prospect of upheavals in military practice so fundamental that they challenge assumptions underlying long-established international laws of war, particularly those relating to the primacy of the state and the geographic bounds of warfare. But the laws of war have been developed over a long period, with commentary and input from many cultures. What would seem appropriate in this age of extraordinary technological change, the author concludes, is a reconsideration of the laws of war in a deliberate and focused international dialogue that includes a range of cultural and institutional perspectives.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 21-31 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists |
Volume | 70 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2014 |
Keywords
- emerging technologies
- international humanitarian law
- laws of armed conflict
- laws of war
- military technologies
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Political Science and International Relations