The Ethics of Remote Warfare by Lily Hamourtziadou

Ethical approaches to war require that we don't value only the lives of `our' people, as Realism asserts; that we don't enforce our sense of justice with weapons, as Militarism demands our `moral warriors' do; that force is used only in self-defence, based on the principles of Just War Theory. However, can there be purely defensive or moral wars? This book offers unique insights into twenty-first century warfare through three approaches - Realism, Militarism, and Just war Theory - in the context of `precision' weapons, celebrated for minimising risks to soldiers and civilians. The author questions whether the rapidly developing technology of lethal autonomous weapons is actually expanding an existing legal-ethical issue: the problem of civilian harm. Laws permits acts that cause incidental civilian harm; AI warfare puts the law's accountability gap into sharper relief, highlighting the need for new accountability mechanisms that reflect a sense of legal and moral justice.
Binding: Hardback