While it is universally acknowledged that peace is a preferable condition than warfare, that has not deterred the persistent conduct of lethal conflict over millennia.
The passion for inflicting harm, the cruel thirst for vengeance, an unpacific and relentless spirit, the fever of revolt, the lust of power, and such like things, all these are rightly condemned in war
Fortunately, these potential failings of man need not be replicated in autonomous battlefield robots of which many are now deployed amongst conventional military forces.
The Laws of War (LOW), encoded in protocols such as the Geneva Conventions and Rules of Engagement (ROE), prescribe what is and what is not acceptable in the battlefield in both a global (standing ROE) and local (Supplemental ROE) context, The ROE are required to be fully compliant with the laws of war.
It is anticipated that teams of autonomous systems and human soldiers will work together on the battlefield, as opposed to the common science fiction vision of armies of unmanned systems operating by themselves.
Nonetheless, the trend is clear: warfare will continue and autonomous robots will ultimately be deployed in its conduct. Given this, questions then arise regarding how these systems can conform as well or better than our soldiers with respect to adherence to the existing Laws of War.
A discussion of the ethical behaviour of robots would be incomplete without some reference to Asimov ’s “Three Laws of Robotics” (there are actually four). While they are elegant in their simplicity and have served a useful fictional purpose by bringing to light a whole range of issues surrounding robot ethics and rights, they are at best a straw man to bootstrap the ethical debate and as such serve no useful practical purpose beyond their fictional roots.
The Laws of War, aggregate specific prohibitions, permissions, and obligations that the warfighter (and an ethical autonomous system) must abide by. It must be ensured that these constraints are effectively embedded within a robot potentially capable of lethal action for the specific battlefield situations it will encounter.
Specific examples of prohibited acts include.
1. It is especially forbidden
a. To declare that no quarter will be given the enemy.
b. To kill or wound an enemy who, having laid down his arms, or having no longer
means of defense, has surrendered at discretion.
c. To employ arms, projectile, or material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering.
2. The pillage of a town or place, even when taken by assault is prohibited.
3. The taking of hostages is prohibited (including civilians).
4. Devastation as an end in itself or as a separate measure of war is not sanctioned by the
law of war. There must be some reasonably close connection between the destruction of
property and the overcoming of the enemy’s army.
Regarding lawful targeting (who can and cannot be killed and what can be targeted in warfare):
1. Regarding combatants and military objectives:
a. Once war has begun, soldiers (combatants) are subject to attack at any time, unless
they are wounded or captured.
b. Targeting of enemy personnel and property is permitted unless otherwise prohibited
by international law.
c. Attacks on military objectives which may cause collateral damage to civilian objects
or collateral injury to civilians not taking a direct part in the hostilities are not
prohibited (Principle of Double Effect).
d. Collateral/Incidental damage is not a violation of international law in itself (subject to
the law of proportionality).
e. All reasonable precautions must be taken to ensure only military objectives are
targeted, so damage to civilian objects (collateral damage) or death and injury to
civilians (incidental injury) is avoided as much as possible.
f. The presence of civilians in a military objective does not alter its status as a military
objective.
g. In general, any place the enemy chooses to defend makes it subject to attack. This
includes forts or fortifications, places occupied by a combatant force or through
which they are passing, and city or town with indivisible defensive positions.
h. A belligerent attains combatant status by merely carrying his arms openly during each
military engagement, and visible to an adversary while deploying for an attack. (The
United States believes this is not an adequate test as it “diminishes the distinction
between combatants and civilians, thus undercutting the effectiveness of humanitarian
law”).
i. Retreating troops, even in disarray, are legitimate targets. They could only be
immunized from further attack by surrender, not retreat.
j. Destroy, take or damage property based only upon military necessity.
k. A fighter must wear “a fixed distinctive sign visible at a distance” and “carry arms
openly” to be eligible for the war rights of soldiers. Civilian clothes should not be
used as a ruse or disguise.
l. Legitimate military objectives are regarded as;
1) Fixed military fortifications, bases, barracks and installations, including training
and war-gaming facilities
2) Temporary military camps, entrenchments, staging areas, deployment positions,
and embarcation points
3) Military units and individual members of the armed forces, whether stationed or
mobile
4) Weapon systems, military equipment and ordnance, armor and artillery, and
military vehicles of all types
5) Military aircraft and missiles of all types
6) Military airfields and missile launching sites
7) Warships (whether surface vessels or submarines) of all types
8) Military ports and docks
9) Military depots, munitions dumps, warehouses or stockrooms for the storage of
weapons, ordnance, military equipment and supplies (including raw materials for
military use, such as petroleum)
10) Factories (even when privately owned) engaged in the manufacture of arms,
munitions and military supplies
11) Laboratories or other facilities for the research and development of new weapons
and military devices
12) Military repair facilities
13) Power plants (electric, hydroelectric, etc.) serving the military
14) Arteries of transportation of strategic importance, principally mainline railroads
and rail marshaling yards, major motorways, navigable rivers and canals
(including the tunnels and bridges of railways and trunk roads)
15) Ministries of Defense and any national, regional or local operational or
coordination center of command, control and communication relating to running
the war (including computer centers, as well as telephone and telegraph
exchanges, for military use)
16) Intelligence-gathering centers (even when not run by the military establishment)
17) All enemy warships
18) An enemy merchant vessel engaged directly in belligerent acts (e.g., laying mines
or minesweeping)
19) An enemy merchant vessel acting as an auxiliary to the enemy armed forces (e.g.,
carrying troops or replenishing warships)
20) An enemy merchant vessel engaging in reconnaissance or otherwise assisting in
intelligence gathering for the enemy armed forces
21) An enemy merchant vessel refusing an order to stop or actively resisting capture
22) An enemy merchant vessel armed to an extent that it can inflict damage on a
warship (especially a submarine)
23) An enemy merchant vessel traveling under a convoy escorted by warships,
thereby benefiting from the (more powerful) armament of the latter
24) An enemy merchant vessel making an effective contribution to military action
(e.g., by carrying military materials)
25) All enemy military aircraft
26) Enemy civilian aircraft when flying within the jurisdiction of their own State,
should enemy military aircraft approach and they do not make the nearest
available landing
27) Enemy civilian aircraft when flying (i) within the jurisdiction of the enemy; or (ii)
in the immediate vicinity thereof and outside the jurisdiction of their own State; or
(iii) in the immediate vicinity of the military operations of the enemy by land or
sea (the exceptional right of prompt landing is inapplicable)
2. Regarding noncombatant immunity:
a. Civilians:
1) Individual civilians, the civilian population as such and civilian objects are
protected from intentional attack.
2) Civilians are protected from being sole or intentional objects of a military attack,
from an indiscriminate attack, or attack without warning prior to a bombardment
unless and for such time as he or she takes a direct part in
hostilities.
3) Launching attacks against civilian populations is prohibited
Noncombatants cannot be attacked at any time or be the targets of military
activity (noncombatant immunity).
4) There exists an obligation to take feasible measures to remove civilians from
areas containing military objectives.
5) It is forbidden to force civilians to give information about the enemy.
6) It is forbidden to conduct reprisals against the civilian population “on account of
the acts of individuals for which they cannot be regarded as jointly and severally
responsible”.
7) Treatment of Civilians including those in conflict are:
a) No adverse distinction based upon race, religion, sex, etc.
b) No violence to life or person
c) No degrading treatment
d) No civilian may be the object of a reprisal
e) No measures of brutality
f) No coercion (physical or moral) to obtain information
g) No insults and exposure to public curiosity
h) No general punishment for the acts of an individual, subgroup, or group
i) Civilians may not be used as “human shields” in an attempt to immunize an
otherwise lawful military objective. However, violations of this rule by the
party to the conflict do not relieve the opponent of the obligation to do
everything feasible to implement the concept of distinction (discrimination)
j) Civilian wounded and sick must be cared for
k) Special need civilians are defined as: mothers of children under seven;
wounded, sick and infirm; aged; children under the age of 15; and expectant
Mothers; which results from the presumption that they can play no role in
support of the war effort. Special need civilians are to be respected and
protected by all parties to the conflict at all times. This immunity is further
extended to Ministers, medical personnel and transport, and civilian
hospitals.
8) In order to ensure respect and protection of the civilian population and civilian
objects, the Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the
civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military
objectives and accordingly direct their operations only against military objectives
This includes the following specific prohibitions:
a) Civilians may never be the object of attack.
b) Attacks intended to terrorize the civilian population are prohibited.
c) Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited. Indiscriminate is defined as:
(1) Attacks not directed at a specific military objective, or employing a
method or means of combat that cannot be so directed
(2) Attacks which employ a method or means of combat the effects of
which cannot be controlled
(3) Attacks treating dispersed military objectives, located in a
concentration of civilians, as one objective
(4) Attacks which may be expected to cause collateral damage excessive
in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage to be gained
(proportionality)
Reproduced from Governing Lethal Behavior: Embedding Ethics in a Hybrid Deliberative/Reactive Robot Architecture* Ronald C. Arkin Mobile Robot Laboratory College of Computing Georgia Institute of Technology
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