Emerging Technologies
Diverging Standards in the Legal Review of LAWS
In May 2025, Anduril Industries publicly unveiled Fury (YFQ-44A), a next-generation autonomous aircraft currently under evaluation by the U.S. Air Force as part of its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. Fury takes its first test flights this summer. The goal...
Brian Christian’s The Alignment Problem: A Cautionary Tale to Proponents of LAWS
Brian Christian’s The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values is an accessible, comprehensive look under the hood of contemporary machine learning. The title suggests, and Christian states, “This book is about machine learning and human values: about...
Interning a Hacker
Recently, at a workshop at Harvard Law School, I grappled with the question of internment in any international armed conflict (IAC) in the near future. It is a question some are uncomfortable with, although the concept of internment remains legally available under...
How Meaningful is “Meaningful Human Control” in LAWS Regulation?
In recent years, the concept of “meaningful human control” (MHC) has emerged as a key consideration in regulating lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS). This standard seeks to ensure substantial human involvement in overseeing and directing the operational functions...
Ukraine Symposium – The Continuing Autonomous Arms Race
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags into a grueling war of attrition, both sides are intensifying efforts to achieve a battlefield breakthrough with technological innovation. The invasion has sparked a rapid proliferation of low-cost drones and robotic systems that...
When Technology Meets Humanity: Harnessing New and Emerging Technologies at the End of Conflict
New and emerging technologies offer significant contributions toward facilitating the end of conflict and protecting and easing the effects of conflict on the civilian population. Over the past decade and more, security and legal scholars have devoted enormous...
The Drone Threat, the Laser Response, and the Law – Part II
The first part of this two-part post, described and explained the weapons law principles and rules that apply to suicide or kamikaze drones. It also set forth and explained applicable targeting law principles and rules and addressed the legality of mass attacks...
The Drone Threat, the Laser Response, and the Law – Part I
In conflicts during the last few years, unmanned air weapons, commonly referred to as drones, have increasingly been used to undertake attacks of ground targets. These attacks have recently involved large numbers of these drones, often directed at multiple targets....
Lieber Workshop 2024: International Law and the Future of Multi-Domain Operations in the Indo-Pacific
Editors’ note: The views expressed in this post are those of the authors and not necessarily those of any other workshop participants. From October 28 to 31, 2024, the Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare hosted its eighth annual Lieber Workshop at its institutional...
Electronic Warfare and the Law of Armed Conflict
Earlier this year, we had the pleasure of participating in the “Future of Warfare and the Law Symposium” at U.S. Army Futures Command in Austin, Texas. The conference, which was co-sponsored by Army Futures Command, the Strauss Center for International Security and...
Lawfully Using Autonomous Weapon Technologies
Editor's note: This post is derived from the author’s recently published book Lawfully Using Autonomous Weapon Technologies, published with Springer Press. We, members of the human race in 2024, already live in a world saturated with artificial intelligence (AI). Like...
Russia’s Alleged Nuclear Anti-Satellite Weapon: International Law and Political Rhetoric
The development and testing of anti-satellite weapons (ASATs), as well as debates concerning the legal and policy implications of ASAT testing and use, have existed since soon after the dawn of the Space Age. The centrality of these issues has waxed and waned over...
