High-Tech Wars - 14th Annual Foreign Policy Conference

Challenges to peace and security in times of drones, robots and digital warfare

Wars are military
conflicts between states and armed groups. In future, combat operations
will be increasingly dominated by machines and algorithms. Unmanned
weapons systems are already changing the nature of warfare. At present,
the development and deployment of these new technologies is not
adequately covered by an international regulatory framework. We are thus
facing a new era in security policy and the threat of a new arms race
in digital warfare and automated weapons systems.

Parallel to
this development, the security landscape has been evolving. The old
balance of mutually assured destruction between NATO and the Soviet bloc
has been replaced by asymmetric wars in which all sides are using
unconventional methods of engagement. States are increasingly being
confronted by non-state actors. Recent military operations have thus
been characterized by a steadily mounting asymmetry of the conflict
parties. At the same time, the rapid progress of digital technology is
opening new possibilities of intervention and destabilization that are
capable of paralyzing a state without a shot being fired. The start and
end of a war would then no longer be clearly discernible, and the
perpetrators of cyber warfare or drone attacks no longer easily
identifiable.

At its 14th Annual Foreign Policy Conference, the
Heinrich Böll Foundation seeked to address the challenges posed to
peace-oriented security policy by these new technologies. It evaluated the current state and perspectives of the new weapons systems,
and explore the issue of containing them in international political and
legal frameworks to prevent a new arms race and the escalation of
conflicts. At present, life-or-death decisions are still made by humans,
not drones. Nevertheless, the possibilities and desired limitations of
new weapons systems must be debated before international law is overrun
by the new technologies.

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