Configuring Warfare: Automation, Control, Agency

Autor(en): Matthias Leese
Herausgeber: Marijn Hoijtink, Matthias Leese
Buchtitel: Technology and Agency in International Relations
Serie: Emerging Technologies, Ethics and International Affairs
Verlag(e): Routledge
Publikationsjahr: 2019

This chapter argues that in order to understand what might be at stake in the future of warfare against the backdrop of potentially “autonomous” weapons systems, we must pay attention to the specific ways in which humans and machines share or split tasks within these systems, and how their relationships revolve around notions of automation and control. Building on Suchman’s concept of configuration, it highlights the role of cultural imaginaries that inform the construction of socio-technical systems, notably the idea of “meaningful human control” over automated system functions. In doing so, it draws specific attention to the presupposed boundary between humans and computers that is within socio-technical systems engendered through the notion of control.

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