Human Visions of FutureNon-Human War? How advances in digital and robotic military systems are creating a new future non-human notion of perpetual conflict

Abstract

This article discusses the rise and increasing use of unmanned military systems. It describes how over the course of the last fifteen years they have increasingly become weapons of importance in modern-day conflicts. These new weapons have altered the nature of conflict, its shape, focus, and its political notion. Yet the largest risk comes not from the current changes, but from those in the near future. These foreseen changes could give rise to a scenario in which the notion and conduct of conflict could be further transformed, leading to an entire new concept of conflict. This is going to be an unmanned, non-human notion of conflict, in which the political cost of conflict will be radically different. This new notion, and its limited political costs, could subsequently create a perpetual state of conflict.