Mitigating Accidental War: Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems and De-Escalation Strategies

The continual advancement of new technologies in theaters of conflict pose distinct challenges to global security. While concerns surrounding drones have been debated extensively over the last decade, it is the advent of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) which is intensifying the ethical, legal, governance, and strategic debates pertaining to the use (and misuse) of unmanned military power. The actions that LAWS can, will, or should be allowed to perform is a major policy question. In describing these “machines with the power and discretion to take lives without human involvement,” the UN Secretary-General António Guterres claims that LAWS are “politically unacceptable, morally repugnant and should be prohibited by international law” (UN News, 2019). While the UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) has not agreed on a definition for LAWS, the major difference compared to that of drones is that humans would not directly control the use-of-force by LAWS. While no one can predict with certainty the actions LAWS might perform, experts from a variety of fields – including roboticists, military personnel, politicians, lawyers and philosophers – must consider policies to mitigate accidental conflict involving LAWS, particularly if considered to be a device used in a humanitarian or strategic context. In attempting to add much needed connective tissue to such complex debates, this chapter will begin with a brief review of the context that decision makers faced during major crises during the Cold War, and how crises could play out very differently today. Second, it considers regulation to enforce limits on the weapons carried by LAWS in a bid to minimize the consequences of present day and future conflict. And lastly, the chapter puts forward suggestions for finding areas of transparency and communication for development in Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms to minimize the likelihood of accidental war breaking out.