Moral Responsibility in Twenty-First-Century Warfare

2021 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title

Moral Responsibility in Twenty-First-Century Warfare explores the complex relationship between just war theory and the ethics of autonomous weapons systems (AWS). One of the challenges facing ethicists of war, particularly just war theorists, is that AWS is an applicative concept that seems, in many ways, to lie beyond the human(ist) scope of the just war theory tradition. The book examines the various ethical gaps between just war theory and the legal and moral status of AWS, addresses the limits of both traditional and revisionist just war theory, and proposes ways of bridging some of these gaps. It adopts a dualistic notion of moral responsibility—or differing, related notions of moral responsibility and legitimate authority—to study the conflicts and contradictions of legitimizing the autonomous weapons that are designed to secure peace and neutralize the effects of violence. Focusing on the changing conditions and dynamics of accountability, responsibility, autonomy, and rights in twenty-first-century warfare, the volume sheds light on the effects of violence and the future ethics of modern warfare.

Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Dual Moral Responsibility and the Ethical Challenges of Twenty-First-Century Warfare
Steven C. Roach and Amy E. Eckert

Part I: Just War and Moral Authority

1. Defending Conventionalist Just War Theory in the Face of Twenty-First-Century Warfare
Peter Sutch

2. The Fantasy of Nonviolence and the End (?) of Just War
Laura Sjoberg

3. Contemporary Nuclear Deterrence Dynamics and the Question of Dual Moral Responsibility
Thomas E. Doyle II

4. Private Military and Security Companies: Justifying Moral Responsibility through Self-Regulation
Sommer Mitchell

Part II: Autonomous Weapons Systems and Moral Responsibility

5. The Rights of (Killer) Robots
David J. Gunkel

6. No Hands or Many Hands? Deproblematizing the Case for Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems
Jai Galliott

7. Ethical Weapons: A Case for AI in Weapons
Jason B. Scholz, Dale A. Lambert, Robert S. Bolia, and Jai Galliott

Conclusion: The Future (Idea) of Just War and Autonomous Weapons Systems
Steven C. Roach

Contributors
Index