PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Technology 1 step ahead of war laws

2014-01-06
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Katie Baker
katie.baker@sagepub.co.uk
020-732-48719
SAGE Publications
Technology 1 step ahead of war laws Los Angeles, London (January 06, 2013). Today's emerging military technologies—including unmanned aerial vehicles, directed-energy weapons, lethal autonomous robots, and cyber weapons like Stuxnet—raise the prospect of upheavals in military practices so fundamental that they challenge long-established laws of war. Weapons that make their own decisions about targeting and killing humans, for example, have ethical and legal implications obvious and frightening enough to have entered popular culture (for example, in the Terminator films).

The current international laws of war were developed over many centuries and long before the current era of fast-paced technological change. Military ethics and technology expert Braden Allenby says the proper response to the growing mismatch between long-established international law and emerging military technology "is neither the wholesale rejection of the laws of war nor the comfortable assumption that only minor tweaks to them are necessary." Rather, he argues, the rules of engagement should be reconsidered through deliberate and focused international discussion that includes a wide range of cultural and institutional perspectives. Allenby's article anchors a special issue on the threat of emerging military technologies in the latest Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BOS), published by SAGE. History is replete with paradigm shifts in warfare technology, from the introduction of gunpowder, which arguably gave rise to nation states, to the air-land-battle technologies used during the Desert Storm offensive in Kuwait and Iraq in 1991, which caused 20,000 to 30,000 Iraqi casualties and left only 200 US coalition troops dead. But today's accelerating advances across the technological frontier and dramatic increases in the numbers of social institutions at play around the world are blurring boundaries between military and civil entities and state and non-state actors. And because the United States has an acknowledged primacy in terms of conventional forces, the nations and groups that compete with it increasingly think in terms of asymmetric warfare, raising issues that lie beyond established norms of military conduct and may require new legal thinking and institutions to address.

"The impact of emerging technologies on the laws of war might be viewed as a case study and an important learning opportunity for humankind as it struggles to adapt to the complexity that it has already wrought, but has yet to learn to manage," Allenby writes. Other articles in the Bulletin's January/February special issue on emerging military technologies include "The enhanced warfighter" by Ken Ford, which looks at the ethics and practicalities of performance enhancement for military personnel, and Michael C. Horowitz's overview of the near-term future of US war-fighting technology, "Coming next in military tech." The issue also offers two views of the use of advanced robotics: "Stopping killer robots," Mark Gubrud's argument in favor of an international ban on lethal autonomous weapons, and "Robot to the rescue," Gill Pratt's account of a US Defense Department initiative aiming to develop robots that will improve response to disasters, like the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, that involve highly toxic environments. ### "Are new technologies undermining the laws of war?" by Braden R. Allenby, published January 06, 2013, in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists This article and selected others from the issue will be free to access for a limited time: http://bos.sagepub.com/ Members of the media are eligible for complimentary subscriptions. To receive the journal, please send hyperlinks to three recently published articles, as well as your media outlet information to: katie.baker@sagepub.co.uk The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists informs the public about threats to the survival and development of humanity from nuclear weapons, climate change, and emerging technologies in the life sciences. The Bulletin was established in 1945 by scientists, engineers, and other experts who had created the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project. http://bos.sagepub.com

SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, and Washington DC. http://www.sagepublications.com.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

The loving touch is critical for premature infants

2014-01-06
The loving touch is critical for premature infants Philadelphia, PA, January 6, 2014 – The benefit that premature infants gain from skin-to-skin contact with their mothers is measurable even 10 years after birth, reports a new study in Biological Psychiatry. Physical ...

CWRU researcher finds released inmates need programs to meet basic and mental health needs

2014-01-06
CWRU researcher finds released inmates need programs to meet basic and mental health needs When inmates with severe mental illness are released from jail, their priority is finding shelter, food, money and clothes. Even needs as basic as soap and a ...

Suicide risk doesn't differ in children taking 2 types of commonly prescribed antidepressants

2014-01-06
Suicide risk doesn't differ in children taking 2 types of commonly prescribed antidepressants A Vanderbilt University Medical Center study released today shows there is no evidence that the risk of suicide differs with two commonly prescribed ...

Laying money on the line leads to healthier food choices over time

2014-01-06
Laying money on the line leads to healthier food choices over time People are more likely to choose healthy options at the grocery store if they use the risk of losing their monthly healthy food discount as a motivational tool, according ...

MRSA infection rates drop in Veterans Affairs long-term care facilities

2014-01-06
MRSA infection rates drop in Veterans Affairs long-term care facilities Washington, DC, January 6, 2014 – Four years after implementing a national initiative to reduce methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) rates in Veterans Affairs (VA) long-term care facilities, ...

Stimulating brain cells stops binge drinking, animal study finds

2014-01-06
Stimulating brain cells stops binge drinking, animal study finds Results suggest it may be possible to use gene therapy in the brain to treat substance abuse, neurological diseases and mental illnesses BUFFALO, N.Y. – Researchers at the University at Buffalo have ...

US Army identifies 6 critical research targets for improving outcomes in traumatic brain injury

2014-01-06
US Army identifies 6 critical research targets for improving outcomes in traumatic brain injury New Rochelle, NY, January 6, 2014—The U.S. Department of Defense funds more than 500 neurotrauma research projects totaling over $700 million. ...

Establishing guides for molecular counting using fluorescent proteins

2014-01-06
Establishing guides for molecular counting using fluorescent proteins The study recently published in Nature Methods has been able to determine the photoactivation efficiency of fluorescent proteins, an important parameter that has so far ...

New technique targets specific areas of cancer cells with different drugs

2014-01-06
New technique targets specific areas of cancer cells with different drugs Researchers have developed a technique for creating nanoparticles that carry two different cancer-killing drugs into the body and deliver those drugs to separate parts of the cancer ...

ALMA spots supernova dust factory

2014-01-06
ALMA spots supernova dust factory Striking new observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope capture, for the first time, the remains of a recent supernova brimming with freshly formed dust. If enough of this dust makes the perilous transition into ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Study discusses how to mitigate damage from gunshot injuries to the brain in children and young adults

New research challenges animal dietary classifications in Yellowstone National Park

Parenthood not lessening loss for widowed people, 25 years of interviews suggest

UC Irvine astronomers discover scores of exoplanets may be larger than realized

Theory for aerosol droplets from contaminated bubbles bursting gives insight into spread of pollution, microplastics, infectious disease

AI-powered mobile retina tracker screens for diabetic eye disease with 99% accuracy

Implantable cell therapy has potential to restore adrenal function and treat primary adrenal insufficiency

Obesity and type 2 diabetes in teen years can impair bone health

Study finds strong link between acromegaly and increased cancer risk

Vapes more effective for smoking cessation than nicotine gum and lozenges

Aluminum exposure from childhood vaccines not linked to increased risk of autoimmune, allergic, or neurodevelopmental disorders

Smarter tools for policymakers: Notre Dame researchers target urban carbon emissions, building by building

Here’s how we help an iconic California fish survive the gauntlet of today’s highly modified waterways

New technique can dramatically improve laser linewidth

Forest trees and microbes choreograph their hunt for a ‘balanced diet’ under elevated CO2

Beyond health: The political effects of infectious disease outbreaks

For tastier and hardier citrus, researchers built a tool for probing plant metabolism

Stay hydrated: New sensor knows when you need a drink

Quantum internet meets space-time in this new ingenious idea

Soil erosion in mountain environments accelerated by agro-pastoral activities for 3,800 years

Optogenetic platform illuminates new antiviral strategies

A new theory explaining oscillations in tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR)

Early antibiotics alter immune function in infants

With the second grant to therapy

Research center developing digital twins for manufacturing

Colombia’s biofortified rice has untapped potential to improve nutrition. And consumers want it

Study shows pregnancy can significantly worsen risk of serious brain injury in women with arteriovenous malformations

Mapping important infrastructure could aid emergency response after hurricanes

Nighttime pistachio snacking may reshape gut microbiome in prediabetic adults

Friendship promotes neural and behavioral similarity

[Press-News.org] Technology 1 step ahead of war laws