Norms are what machines make of them: Autonomous Weapons Systems and the normative implications of human-machine interactions

The emergence of autonomous weapons systems (AWS) is increasingly in the academic and public focus. Research largely focuses on the legal and ethical implications of AWS as a new weapons category set to revolutionise the use of force. However, the debate on AWS neglects the question what introducing these weapons systems could mean for how decisions are made. Pursuing this from a theoretical-conceptual perspective, the article critically analyses what impact AWS can have on norms as standards of appropriate action. The article draws on the Foucauldian "apparatus of security" to develop a concept that accommodates the role of security technologies for the conceptualisation of norms guiding the use of force. It discusses to what extent a technologically mediated construction of a normal reality emerges in the interplay of machinic and human agency and how this leads to the development of norms. The article argues that AWS provide a specific construction of reality in their operation and thereby define procedural norms that tend to replace the deliberative, normative-political decision on when, how, and why to use force. The article is a theoretical-conceptual contribution to the question of why AWS matter and why we should further consider the implications of new arrangements of human-machine interactions in IR

After Decision-Making: The Operationalization of Norms in International Relations

Research on norms in International Relations (IR) includes various concepts related to how norms influence actions. These approaches focus on the decision-making process, and largely neglect the operationalization of norms. This omission leads to an analytical gap: a lack of attention to how the substance of abstract norms is transformed and constructed in the operationalization process. This article draws on the Foucauldian theme of governmentality to introduce a novel perspective on operationalizing norms. It focuses in particular on the role of techniques as understudied parts inherent to the reflexive processes of operationalization and meaning production. The article thereby contests the prevalence of fundamental norms in conventional IR theory. It demonstrates, instead, that global governance techniques do not simply translate rationalities into practice, but construct their very own normativities. These theoretical reflections are illustrated by analysing the operationalization of norms through indicators in the case of the European Union’s human rights policy

A Force for Good Governance? The European Union’s normative Power and Standards of appropriate Governing

The European Union (EU) is often characterised as ultimate normative international actor. Whereas the representations of the EU as alleged ‘force for good’ are well-researched, there is a lack of investigations into the question how the practice of a putative ‘normative power Europe’ is related to approaches of good governance. Despite the role of the latter notion in the EU’s external relations and system of governance in general, we know little about the potentially diverse meaning of concepts of good governance on the global level. The article analyses the significance of good governance for international governmental organisations and the EU in a comparative perspective. It concludes that the EU is in fact promoting a unique approach of good governance which combines economic and political aspects. At the same time, the focus on functional-technical reforms risks to undermine the operationalization of the EU’s political normative power in the practice of external governing

Autonomous Weapons Systems and Changing Norms in International Relations

Autonomous weapons systems (AWS) are emerging as key technologies of future warfare. So far, academic debate concentrates on the legal-ethical implications of AWS but these do not capture how AWS may shape norms through defining diverging standards of appropriateness in practice. In discussing AWS, the article formulates two critiques on constructivist models of norm emergence: first, constructivist approaches privilege the deliberative over the practical emergence of norms; and second, they overemphasize fundamental norms rather than also accounting for procedural norms, which we introduce in this article. Elaborating on these critiques allows us to respond to a significant gap in research: we examine how standards of procedural appropriateness emerging in the development and usage of AWS often contradict fundamental norms and public legitimacy expectations. Normative content may therefore be shaped procedurally, challenging conventional understandings of how norms are constructed and considered as relevant in International Relations. In this, we outline the contours of a research program on the relationship of norms and AWS, arguing that AWS can have fundamental normative consequences by setting novel standards of appropriate action in international security policy

The Implications of Emerging Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems for International Peace and Security

This policy brief speaks to the military effects of lethal autonomous weapons systems raised in the GGE chairperson’s food-for-thought paper (CCW/GGE1/2017/WP1). In particular, it addresses the following questions: Could the potential deployment of LAWS lower the threshold of use of force? Could it enhance asymmetric deployment of force or covert use of force? The brief provides answers to these questions in two steps. First, it argues that international legal regulations governing the use of force, centred around the general prohibition of the use-of force, have played a significant role in maintaining international peace and security in the UN-Charter era. This role is based both on states’ shared sense of being bound by these rules and the certainty of expectations they thus provide. Second, the development of LAWS threatens this certainty of expectations because they are likely to introduce more “grey areas” in how states interpret international law

Be Free? The European Union's post-Arab Spring Women's Empowerment as Neoliberal Governmentality

This article analyses post-Arab Spring EU initiatives to promote women's empowerment in the Southern Mediterranean region. Inspired by Foucauldian concepts of governmentality, it investigates empowerment as a technology of biopolitics that is central to the European neoliberal model of governance. In contrast to dominant images such as normative power Europe that present the EU as a norm-guided actor promoting political liberation, the article argues that the EU deploys a concept of functional freedom meant to facilitate its vision of economic development. As a consequence, the alleged empowerment of women based on the self-optimisation of individuals and the statistical control of the female population is a form of bio-power. In this regard, empowerment works as a governmental technology of power instead of offering a measure to foster fundamental structural change in Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) societies. The EU therefore fails in presenting and promoting an alternative normative political vision distinct from the incorporation of women into the hierarchy of the existing market society