Topic:
Country: Niger
Delegate Name: Stephen Wolf
DISEC – Niger – Wolf
Delegate: Stephan Wolf
School: Forest Hills Central
Country: Republique du Niger
Committee/Topic: DISEC: Autonomous Weapons System
The greatest and only perpetual threat to humanity is itself. The creation of autonomous weapon systems with the intent on combat without humans should not only be a cause for fear, but a calling for the international community to tackle this oncoming threat like it did with the proliferation of nuclear devices. It is the developed nations that continue to tinker with the tools to undo thousands of years of existence and therefore are the nations to blame with their continued acts of aggression on the world stage. AI code should not be the base of the world’s arsenals and neither should nonhuman weaponry. As inhumane as wars are, the threat of lethal autonomous weapons in the hands of nonstate actors or in the advent of a large war is far worse to imagine.
Niger has as strong a history with conflict as other nations of this committee. Colonization to self governance has not been an easy road and one made worse by the proliferation of arms within Africa. The developed nations of the world such as the United States and Russian Federation have acted as blind dealers of fate to many African nations and will continue to do so with their newly developed lethal autonomous weapons which they dub as weapons of defense. The practical realities of this for Niger and its fellow African countries is the potential for further military coups and instability funded by an army of loyal drones unconcious to crimes against humanity they cause. The stability of Niger is currently difficult to describe as positive and the introduction of such destructive weaponry serves only to destroy what little has been done. Although not a nation involved in the development or purchase of LAWs, the chance of the weapons developed by other nations falling into hands of groups such as Boko Haram pose great risk to the freedom and democracy we cling to. Africa as a continent has been a battlefield for successful nations engaging in proxy wars to support their ideology or to test their technology and nothing currently would prevent LAWs from getting included into these conflicts for the sake of conflict. Therefore, Niger hopes to stand as an independent mediary on the international stage to help call for the limiting of autonomous weaponry before the world stands on the brink of destruction.
Weaponry is capable of being regulated successfully. The Geneva Convention of 1949 stands as a great example of what this committee should look towards as the topic of lethal autonomous weapons is discussed. A weapon which does not have the basic human abilities to differentiate and identify friend, foe, or noncombatant should not be viewed any less dangerous as unmarked minefields or any less inhumane as flamethrowers. The banning of autonomous weapons from being used in warfare and from being sold to foreign nations will allow countries to stockpile them as deterrents, but will prevent the spread to undesirable nonstate actors in large quantities. In addition, measures must be taken to secure the spread of code related to more advanced autonomous weaponry so as to limit the abilities of said nonstate actors in creating their own LAWs. Furthermore, the development of anti-LAW devices to jam electronic systems should be put into priority with the intent to distribute them to nations suffering from militant groups who have developed rudimentary lethal autonomous weapons.
