Citation

Allenby BR. Bull. Atom. Sci. (1974) 2014; 70(1): 21-31.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0096340213516741

PMID

unavailable

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.

Language: en