Following up on the NCHS seminar Killer Robots at the UN, Nicholas Marsh continues the discussion on lethal autonomous weapons and the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots in his latest policy brief, 'Defining the Scope of Autonomy'. Marsh applies a pragmatic theory of humanitarian disarmament and discusses a set of key challenges related to the question of scope – that is, what exactly would be covered by a possible international agreement on lethal autonomous robots.
The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots was launched in April 2013 with the objective of achieving a ban on the development, production and deployment of lethal autonomous weapons. In May 2014, the issue will be discussed by a UN expert meeting under the auspices of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) in Geneva. At this stage, it is inevitable that there will be much debate and discussion over the scope and meaning of any future prohibition. The Campaign is still being shaped, and what will be necessary for its success is that over the next few years a group of states and governments coalesce around a shared understanding of the problem and its solutions.
The policy brief is available to download here:
PRIO Policy Brief – Marsh Nic (2014) Defining the Scope of Autonomy
Read more about the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies (NCHS).
