The international community has been debating how to restrict the use of autonomy in weapon systems for years. In their article for the Contemporary Security Policy journal and blog, Elvira Rosert, junior professor at the University of Hamburg and researcher at IFSH, and Frank Sauer from Bundeswehr University Munich analyze the regulation attempts. In contrast to other weapons, they argue, autonomous weapons cannot be banned as a category. Instead, the authors support proposals to prescribe meaningful human control of critical functions in the targeting cycle.
Journal article: Rosert, Elvira/Sauer, Frank 2020: How (not) to stop the killer robots: A comparative analysis of humanitarian disarmament campaign strategies, in: Contemporary Security Policy, Latest Articles: 1-26. Open Access. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2020.1771508
Blog article: Rosert, Elvira/Sauer, Frank 2020: To ban killer robots, codify human control, Contemporary Security Policy Blog, 8. Juni 2020. http://contemporarysecuritypolicy.org/to-ban-killer-robots-codify-human-control/