Abstract:
According to general perception, future wars will be fought
with Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS). As
LAWS become a technological reality with the ability to
make independent decisions about the use of weapons,
policymakers would also have more opportunities to deploy
a military force with very limited or no risk to personnel.
Though, there is pressure to not allow such a system to
decide whether or not to kill a human - ethical, legal,
military, technological, and economic debates are underway
about whether these types of weapons should be limited or
banned altogether. While machines are already part of
today’s military operations, with their increased autonomy,
decision-makers may become more prone to the use of
force. Though autonomous technology can serve
humanitarian purposes, nonetheless, there need to be
guarantees that these technologies would not be transferred
from humanitarian work to serve military purposes.
Pakistan’s stance is very clear: it has called for a ban on
LAWS. However, Pakistan would be ill-advised to ignore
Research and Development in this technology. It needs to
follow the technological advancements in this field, for
research and security purposes.
