Practice-based and public-deliberative normativity

Retaining Human Control Over the Use of Force

Bibliographic Data

ID6061034
AuthorsIngo Bode (0000-0002-2815-4533, University of Southern Denmark, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume29
Issue4
Pages990-1016
Publication date2023-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of International Relations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1354-0661 • E-ISSN: 1460-3713
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/13540661231163392
OpenAlexW4363650591
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited75

The debate about lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) characterises them as future problems in need of pre-emptive regulation, for example, through codifying meaningful human control. But autonomous technologies are already part of weapons and have shaped how states think about human control. To understand this normative space, I proceed in two steps: first, I theorise how practices of designing, of training personnel for, and of operating weapon systems integrating autonomous technologies have shaped normativity/normality on human control at sites unseen. Second, I trace how this normativity/normality interacts with public deliberations at the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on LAWS by theorising potential dynamics of interaction. I find that the normativity/normality emerging from practices performed in relation to weapon systems integrating autonomous technologies assigns humans a reduced role in specific use of force decisions and understands this diminished decision-making capacity as ‘appropriate’ and ‘normal’. In the public-deliberative process, stakeholders have interacted with this normativity by ignoring it, engaging in distancing or positively acknowledging it – rather than scrutinising it. These arguments move beyond prioritising public deliberation in norm research towards exploring practices performed at sites outside of the public eye as productive of normativity. I theorise this process via international practice theories, critical security studies and Science and Technology scholarship to draw out how practices shape normativity, presenting ideas of oughtness and justice, and normality, making something appear normal via collective, repeated performances

Autonomy · Deliberation · Distancing · Economics · Epistemology · Law and economics · Management · Normality · Normative · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Scholarship · Sociology · Bacillus and Francisella bacterial research · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology

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