Growing autonomy and the politics of moral responsibility for military action

This paper argues that extensive and sophisticated analysis of the responsibility/accountability gap in relation to Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) occurs against a backdrop of largely ignored political and economic dynamics. Dynamics of strategic implications of the security dilemma, the inevitability of AI’s integration into military systems, and capitalist logics of profit maximisation, create, the paper argues, an environment where there is ‘no choice’ other than to develop and deploy such systems. Consequently, in the absence of choice, political responsibility for developing and deploying LAWS is drastically curtailed or even removed. This explains why remaining debates about responsibility and accountability have narrowed to the use of such systems, focusing on the points of target identification, selection, and engagement. Even here, however, the implications of these dynamics shape how analysis of the responsibility/accountability gap has developed, narrowing attention to increasingly technical and procedural questions of compliance with rules of engagement, a utilitarian version of core international humanitarian law principles of discrimination and proportionality, and prioritisation of mission success. This follows existing practice in relation to uncrewed aerial systems. The paper therefore argues for a broadening of perspective to fully recognise the range and extent of ethical issues LAWS present.