Civil Society Responds to the AWS : Growing Activist Networks and Shifting Frames
By Ş. Bahçecik. 2019
This article tracks the emergence and growth of advocacy around autonomous weapon systems (AWS). By looking at the ways in which activists problematize autonomous weapons and at the growing members of the alliance to ban killer robots, the subtle shifts in issue framing and con fi guration of the network are outlined. It is argued that the advocacy against AWS emerged from an epistemic community and grew to include signi fi cant non-governmental organizations such as Human Rights Watch. It is further argued that autonomous weapons were initially conceptualized as ‘ killer robots ’ that threaten international security and the security of civilians during armed con fl ict. This framing later came to be supplemented by ideas that AWS may emerge as a new form of weapon of mass destruction that could be used to threaten citizens living in Western countries. The changes in the network that seeks to ban AWS and the shifting ways of problematizing them indicates that transnational activism is in fl ux. Discordant ways of approaching AWS may risk the formation of a broad-based coalition to ban AWS. This study complements studies that focus on norms of and government policies towards future warfare.
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Citations in the corpus
- Activism by the AI Community: Analysing Recent Achievements and Future Prospects (2020, background): “The AI community played key roles in the adoption of LAWS as an issue by arms control NGOs, the establishment of the UN process, and the ongoing work of the CCW [4].”