Moral Responsibility in Twenty-First-Century Warfare

Description

Moral Responsibility in Twenty-First-Century Warfare explores the complex relationship between just war theory and the ethics of autonomous weapons systems (AWS). One of the challenges facing ethicists of war, particularly just war theorists, is that AWS is an applicative concept that seems, in many ways, to lie beyond the human(ist) scope of the just war theory tradition. The book examines the various ethical gaps between just war theory and the legal and moral status of AWS, addresses the limits of both traditional and revisionist just war theory, and proposes ways of bridging some of these gaps. It adopts a dualistic notion of moral responsibility—or differing, related notions of moral responsibility and legitimate authority—to study the conflicts and contradictions of legitimizing the autonomous weapons that are designed to secure peace and neutralize the effects of violence. Focusing on the changing conditions and dynamics of accountability, responsibility, autonomy, and rights in twenty-first-century warfare, the volume sheds light on the effects of violence and the future ethics of modern warfare.
Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Dual Moral Responsibility and the Ethical Challenges of Twenty-First-Century Warfare
Steven C. Roach and Amy E. Eckert

Part I: Just War and Moral Authority

1. Defending Conventionalist Just War Theory in the Face of Twenty-First-Century Warfare
Peter Sutch

2. The Fantasy of Nonviolence and the End (?) of Just War
Laura Sjoberg

3. Contemporary Nuclear Deterrence Dynamics and the Question of Dual Moral Responsibility
Thomas E. Doyle II

4. Private Military and Security Companies: Justifying Moral Responsibility through Self-Regulation
Sommer Mitchell

Part II: Autonomous Weapons Systems and Moral Responsibility

5. The Rights of (Killer) Robots
David J. Gunkel

6. No Hands or Many Hands? Deproblematizing the Case for Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems
Jai Galliott

7. Ethical Weapons: A Case for AI in Weapons
Jason B. Scholz, Dale A. Lambert, Robert S. Bolia, and Jai Galliott

Conclusion: The Future (Idea) of Just War and Autonomous Weapons Systems
Steven C. Roach

Contributors
Index

Sujets

• Science
• Mathematics
• Philosophy of science
• Futurology

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438480022
• Langue: English

Extrait

MORAL RESPONSIBILITY IN TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY WARFARE
SUNY series in Ethics and the Challenges of Contemporary Warfare

Amy E. Eckert and Steven C. Roach, editors
MORAL RESPONSIBILITY IN TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY WARFARE
Just War Theory and the Ethical Challenges of Autonomous Weapons Systems
Edited by
Steven C. Roach and Amy E. Eckert
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2020 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Roach, Steven C., editor. | Eckert, Amy, editor.
Title: Moral responsibility in twenty-first-century warfare: just war theory and the ethical challenges of autonomous weapons systems / Steven C. Roach and Amy E. Eckert [editors].
Description: Albany : State University of New York, 2020. | Series: SUNY series in ethics and the challenges of contemporary warfare | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020001177 (print) | LCCN 2020001178 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438480015 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438480022 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Military weapons—Technological innovations—Moral and ethical aspects. | Weapons systems—United States—Technological innovations. | Artificial intelligence—Moral and ethical aspects. | Military robotics—Moral and ethical aspects.
Classification: LCC UF500 .M67 2020 (print) | LCC UF500 (ebook) | DDC 172/.42—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020001177
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020001178
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Dual Moral Responsibility and the Ethical Challenges of Twenty-First-Century Warfare
Steven C. Roach and Amy E. Eckert
Part I
Just War and Moral Authority
Chapter 1
Defending Conventionalist Just War Theory in the Face of Twenty-First-Century Warfare
Peter Sutch
Chapter 2
The Fantasy of Nonviolence and the End (?) of Just War
Laura Sjoberg
Chapter 3
Contemporary Nuclear Deterrence Dynamics and the Question of Dual Moral Responsibility
Thomas E. Doyle II
Chapter 4
Private Military and Security Companies: Justifying Moral Responsibility through Self-Regulation
Sommer Mitchell
Part II
Autonomous Weapons Systems and Moral Responsibility
Chapter 5
The Rights of (Killer) Robots
David J. Gunkel
Chapter 6
No Hands or Many Hands? Deproblematizing the Case for Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems
Jai Galliott
Chapter 7
Ethical Weapons: A Case for AI in Weapons
Jason B. Scholz, Dale A. Lambert, Robert S. Bolia, and Jai Galliott
Conclusion: The Future (Idea) of Just War and Autonomous Weapons Systems
Steven C. Roach
Contributors
Index
Illustrations
Figures 7.1 A model of shared command and control between human and machine 7.2 A TTITUDE Cognitive Architecture provides an integrated implementation of all components of cognitive competency 7.3 Illustrative symbolic primitives and symbolic relations for machines 7.4 The Joint Directors of Laboratories Information Fusion Model 7.5 Examples of machine visual semantic segmentation 7.6 Images as viewed through the weapon seeker video feed at three time points prior to impact 7.7 Management and agency of ethical weapons
Tables 4.1 Terms within each theme 4.2 Media characterization of PMSCs 4.3 Private security contractor third-country nationals in Iraq and Afghanistan
Acknowledgments
This book is the first to be published in the SUNY book series, “Ethics and the Challenges of Contemporary Warfare,” which the editors of this volume recently established. We would like to thank Michael Rinella, the commissioning editor, for his marvelous support of this series and of this volume in particular. We are also grateful for the comments and suggestions from three external reviewers, who have helped tighten the focus of the volume and further integrate its chapters.
Introduction
Dual Moral Responsibility and the Ethical Challenges of Twenty-First-Century Warfare
STEVEN C. ROACH AND AMY E. ECKERT
The growing reliance on autonomous weapons systems (AWS) has spurred much debate about the ethics of warfare. In recent years, AWS has called attention to the rapidly changing dimension of modern warfare in which unmanned weapons will be able to detect targets and even attack satellite systems in space. For many, this highlights the need for more ethical thinking and theorizing about the moral dimensions and implications of AWS (see Gunkel 2018; Buhta et al. 2016; Sparrow 2012; Strawser 2013). The aim of this volume is to examine these dimensions and implications through various revisionist applications of just war theory to modern warfare, in particular AWS. In doing so, we seek to build on current applications of just war principles, including the rules of conduct in war ( jus in bello ) for AWS (Arkin 2010), and to address the moral risks and possibilities of extending just war principles to the artificial intelligence (AI) of AWS. The hope is that this will enable us, as Christian Brose (2019, 131–32) points out, “to focus more energy on making moral decisions about the intended outcomes of warfare.”
Still, the challenge facing many ethicists of war, particularly just war theorists, is that AWS is a practical concept that appears to lie outside the human(ist) scope of the just war tradition. By critiquing the statist limitations of traditional and legalist just war theory and focusing attention on the individual human rights of actors (while also examining the legitimate status of other actors in the international realm, such as private military and security companies), revisionist just war theory has largely refrained from addressing questions regarding the legal and moral status of AWS (Gruszczak 2018, 34–35). Revisionist just war theory remains largely, if not exclusively, concerned with contesting international law and state responsibility to the extent that it uses these domains to legitimize jus ad bellum (right to war) and to enforce the codes of moral conduct during war (McMahan 2009; Fabre 2012). Seth Lazar (2017, 41) summarizes the revisionist challenge as follows:
The archetypical traditionalist … is a nonreductivist collectivist who uses realistic cases. The archetypical revisionist is an individualist reductionist who uses cases involving meteors and mind control. Simplifying a little, we might unify the former positions under the heading of political philosophy approaches to just war theory and group the latter together as moral philosophy approach.
This revisionist challenge problematizes many of the assumptions on which the more traditional approach rests. Todd Burkhardt, for example, argues “that the issue of fighting with the right intention also requires us to understand the conditions for a just and lasting peace” (Burkhardt 2017, 1). Just war theory’s narrow focus thus reflects the trouble with relying on conventional facts of human intelligence, discretion, and emotion to justify the ethics of going to war or preserving peace. Working beyond this restrictive focus requires us to critically understand the many ways that violence and advanced weapons systems marginalize persons. Much of this will in turn depend on the ethical engagement with different actors and AWS that allows us to contest and work beyond the limits of just war theory’s revisionist and conventionalist applications.
This volume represents a critical engagement with this emerging gap(s) in logic regarding the moral responsibility of individuals, states, and AWS. As part of this engagement, it adopts the notion of dual moral responsibility, or the differing yet related notions of moral responsibility and legitimate authority, to analyze the changing roles and behaviors of various new actors in the global realm. Dual moral responsibility encapsulates the conflicts and contradictions driving the need for violent weapons and technologies to secure peace and to neutralize the effects of violence. At the same time, the changing conditions of warfare, including the rapidly advancing technology of AWS, are challenging the way we theorize and apply just war principles. If just war theory is to address this challenge, it must begin to confront and engage the biases and conventional logic that fix or restrict its ethical content, including the ideas and assumptions (e.g., gender and individual human agent) used to theorize about just war. The trouble, in other words, with relying on conventional biases to analyze AWS is that it exposes the very limits of these biases against the ethical potential of AWS, or the moral and legal status of AWS. We therefore need to take more seriously the moral implications of the adaptive capacity of AWS (to learn from their environment)—and whether this supports the moral autonomy subsumed under just war principles such as legitimate authority. As Robert Sparrow writes, “The use of such systems may render the attribution of responsibility for the actions of AWS to their operators problematic. … where such use of autonomous weapons seems to risk a responsibility gap and where this gap exists, it will not be p