The Ethics of Remote Warfare

Ethical approaches to war require that we dont value only the lives of our people, as Realism asserts; that we dont 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 laws accountability gap into sharper relief, highlighting the need for new accountability mechanisms that reflect a sense of legal and moral justice.