From The American Interest‘s Via Meadia blog comes this installment of the Department of Terrifying Advances in Science: the first 3D-printed gun. The all-plastic gun still needs a standard-issue metal nail for the pin, so it’s technically not entirely … Read more »
The subject of lethal autonomous weapons has been one of considerable debate on this site—following a Human Rights Watch report calling for a preemptive international ban on such systems. Last week, the Georgetown National Security Law Society took the … Read more »
Ken Anderson and I have just published a new policy paper through the Hoover Institution: Law and Ethics for Autonomous Weapon Systems: Why a Ban Won’t Work and How the Laws of War Can.
Our paper begins:
Public debate
The following guest post is the latest in a series comprising a debate as to whether LOAC requires an attempt to capture rather than a first-resort to lethal force in some circumstances. The debate up to this point involved Professor … Read more »
Just read this uplifting story from Wired Danger Room:
Late last year, a group of 3-D printing gunsmiths developed a key component for an AR-15 rifle that anyone with a 3-D printer could download and make at home. The
Back on December 11, 2012, I posted a special Readings page of links to articles, reports and other materials on autonomous weapon systems and their regulation. It is updated periodically; I’ve just added new articles by Michael Schmitt and Jeffrey … Read more »
In the President’s State of the Union Address, President Obama spent a fair amount of time on foreign policy and Lawfare-related matters. In addition to announcing his cybersecurity executive order, he discussed draw-down plans for Afghanistan, how to deal … Read more »
Alan Backstrom and Ian Henderson have a new draft working paper at SSRN, “New Capabilities in warfare: an overview of contemporary technological developments and the associated legal and engineering issues in article 36 weapons reviews” (International Review of the Red … Read more »
This would certainly have national security implications.
The White House promises to respond to online petitions that receive 25,000 signatures.
This one has more than 29,000:
Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.
That is the title of Eric Posner’s essay in Slate reacting to Jeh Johnson’s Oxford speech. The first part of the piece roughly tracks some of the points I made last week, but then Eric widens the lens:… Read more »
This Lawfare post serves as a running list of links to articles, documents, or other materials related to the regulation and legal review of autonomous weapons systems (or increasingly automated weapons systems). (As of February 18, 2013; this … Read more »
I’ve been meaning for some time to comment on recent developments impacting the DOD-CIA convergence trend. While much of the attention under this heading understandably focuses on drones, it is important to remember that the convergence trend runs in … Read more »
Over the weekend, the United Kingdom joined the United States in warning publicly about Syria’s intentions regarding its chemical weapons. Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters that the U.K. was concerned both about recent evidence that the regime could use … Read more »
Speaking of autonomous weapons systems, which Matt and Ken and Human Rights Watch all were, the Department of Defense has issued a directive entitled “Autonomy in Weapon Systems.” It declares:
It is DoD policy that:
a. Autonomous and
In the category of shameless self-promotion, I am quite pleased to announce the publication of National Security Law in the News: A Guide for Journalists, Scholars, and Policymakers. The book is a joint publication of the ABA Standing Committee on … Read more »
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Stuxnet, the virus that targeted Iran’s uranium enrichment program and that is generally thought to have been created jointly by the United States and Israel, also infected the computer systems of energy … Read more »
Columbia legal scholar Philip Bobbitt just sent in this fascinating article on the constitutionality of the individual mandate as justified by biosecurity. If that sounds like a bit of a non-sequitur, well, take a look at the piece. Written in … Read more »
The New York Times is reporting that a group of flu and public health experts at a WHO-convened meeting in Geneva have decided that the full research details will be released regarding the highly contagious and deadly avian influenza developed … Read more »
In September, a team of Dutch virologists announced that they had created a strain of the avian influenza (H5N1) that, at least in lab animals, was as contagious as the seasonal flu. (A team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has … Read more »
With a few moments to go before the HLS-Brookings Program on Law & Security’s inaugural event begins, I wanted to briefly introduce myself to the Lawfare community. As Ben mentioned in an earlier post, I’m Keith Gerver, a recent graduate … Read more »
Stepping out of his persona as a Guantanamo habeas lawyer, David Remes writes in with the following comments in response to my recent post on fears that Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula is working on refining ricin:
Last Saturday,
An interesting column by David Ignatius pointed me to this fascinating-looking report by Richard Danzig, Marc Sageman, and others. Published by the Center for a New American Security, the report is entitled “Aum Shinrikyo: Insights Into How Terrorists Develop Biological … Read more »
The two main headlines on the online NYT at the moment are about the E Coli outbreak in Germany and the alleged hack by China of Google. I have not seen anyone speculating that the E Coli outbreak is … Read more »
As Scott Shane reported in today’s New York Times, the panel of independent psychiatric experts who reviewed the behavioral health history of Dr. Bruce E. Ivins–the person believed to be responsible for the 2001 anthrax attacks–just released a redacted, public … Read more »
Friday, May 17, 2013
The Department of Justice’s Inspector General released an interim report on the Department’s handling of “known or suspected” terrorists who have entered the government’s witness protection program. The report found, among other things, that information on some program participants had not been turned over to no-fly list authorities; and, that two such people could not be located—though one… Read more »
