Rewriting the rules of war

The 20th century definition of war no longer applies to 21st century technologies used in war. With the introduction of drones, cyberattacks, self-guided bullets, lethal autonomous robots, exoskeleton, brain-reading helmets, among countless other technologies in development, war is not what it used to be and requires a new rule book. 

Brad Allenby, founding chairman of ASU's Center for Earth Systems Engineering and Management, and Carolyn Mattick, doctoral candidate and graduate fellow in emerging technologies at ASU's Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics, state the case for updating the "laws of war" in a Future Tense article. 

In Why We Need New 'Rules of War' Allenby and Mattick detail how the historic battlefield has been "freed from the constraint of traditional weapons, extends globally through cyberconnections." No longer is it nations' militaries in combat; war also includes intelligence agencies, private military contractors, nongovernmental organizations, nonstate global actors, among other players that do not fall under the traditional rules of war.

Accounting for new technologies and new actors in war, Allenby and Mattick close with an appeal "to develop a sophisticated and adaptive institutional capability to recognize critical change as it happens, understand the implications across multiple domains, and respond in ways that are rational, ethical and responsible" as the definition of war continues to rapidly evolve. 

Future Tense is a collaboration among ASU, the New America Foundation, and Slate magazine that explores how emerging technologies affect policy and society.