Ethics and Autonomous Weapons

By: Alex Leveringhaus

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Synopsis: This book is amongst the first academic treatments of theemerging debate on autonomous weapons. Autonomous weapons are capable, onceprogrammed, of searching for and engaging a target without direct interventionby a human operator. Critics of these weapons claim that 'taking the humanout-of-the-loop' represents a further step towards the de-humanisation ofwarfare, while advocates of this type of technology contend that the power ofmachine autonomy can potentially be harnessed in order to prevent war crimes. This book provides a thorough and critical assessment of these two positions. Written by a political philosopher at the forefront of the autonomous weaponsdebate, the book clearly assesses the ethical and legal ramifications ofautonomous weapons, and presents a novel ethical argument against fullyautonomous weapons.