2023-05-23 15:30 - 17:00 E19.14
Lonneke Peperkamp will talk about legal and moral uncertainties caused by military-technological innovations such as space technology, cyber/cognitive operations, remote warfare (drones), and (semi) autonomous weapon systems.
‘In times of war, the laws are silent.’ This famous expression is credited to Cicero (and is also the title of the 166th episode of Star Trek). Except for some hardcore realists, few would agree with that statement today. War is governed by international law and moral just war theory. And although these legal rules and the underlying moral principles are not always complied with, they are generally considered valid and applicable to war, and they guide political and military strategy and decision making. The normative framework aims to limit the number of wars and to govern the way that they are fought, in an attempt to limit the horrors of war. Nonetheless, whilst the laws are not silent in times of war, new forms of warfare have created legal and moral uncertainty. The existing norms do not easily translate to the military-technological innovations that are increasingly important on the battlefield. In this presentation, I will focus specifically on the normative challenges related to space technology, cyber/cognitive operations, remote warfare (drones), and (semi) autonomous weapon systems.
Bio: Lonneke Peperkamp is professor of Military Ethics and Leadership at the Dutch Defense Academy in Breda. She has a background in law and philosophy. Her research interests are: just war theory, space security, new technologies in warfare, global justice, and human rights. She is affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Research Hub on Digitalization and Society (iHub, Radboud University Nijmegen) and the Centre of Military Ethics (King’s College London). She is vice president of EuroISME, the International Society for Military Ethics in Europe.