CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2018
| Author | Denk, Stepan |
|---|---|
| Title | Autonomous Weapons and Nuclear Deterrence: Conceptualizing Policy for Revolutionary Weapons |
| Summary | Autonomous weapons have gone from relative obscurity to a hotly debated topic within a space of just several years since first being discussed in a United Nations disarmament forum in 2013. Despite the recent academic surge in interest of autonomous weapons, the debates have largely been confined to specific ethical and legal questions, mostly conducted between opponents and lobbyist supporters of autonomous weapons. This thesis seeks to address the deficiency by attempting to historicize the current debate surrounding autonomous weapons and academically inquire into the role autonomous weapons might play in international relations. To that end, autonomous weapons are seen as continuing in a historical trend of adopting modern technology and the concomitant knowledge production that such innovations bring along. The historical process of developing nuclear policy is shown to serve as a template for discussions on autonomous weapons. To the extent that weapons with autonomous structures will become technologically possible, the debate on autonomous weapons has been conducted with a framework already in existence due to nuclear weapons policy. The attempt of the limited IR and strategic scholarship is progressing along similar lines as that of nuclear weapons. Understanding nuclear strategy is thus essential to predicting the role autonomous weapons will play in future military doctrine. |
| Supervisor | Astrov, Alexander V. |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/denk_stepan.pdf |
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