Topic: Autonomous Weapon Systems
Country: United States
Delegate Name: Alexander Staley
School: Fishers High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All United States position papers GLIMUN 2015 committees
The United States strongly believes that the use of autonomous weapons systems, with an operator to exercise human judgment over the drones are helpful for reducing casualties, and as such should remain legal, and their potential capabilities should be explored. By combining both the effectiveness of robots and the morals and intelligence of humans, taking out dangerous and hostile targets, such as terrorists, becomes easier, and decreases the likelihood of civilian or unintended causalities. It also, removes soldiers from situations that would otherwise threaten their lives.
A common deterrent from autonomous weapons systems is that the legal responsibilities quickly become blurred. Countries, military commanders, manufacturers and programmers are all potentially liable for an error or malfunction with the drones. However, if the reason someone who wasn’t supposed to be was killed, the process for reprimanding a company or nation is fairly simple. If the fault was with the autonomous weapons systems themselves, such as an error or malfunction, then the company, who can then punish specific employees will be at fault. If the problem was killing a questionable target who was later proved innocent, then the state would be held liable. Lastly, if the problem was a user’s error, then the commander would be punished. Because of this, the documentation of everything done with autonomous weapons systems is very important, and could potentially save lives if an error with code or manufacturing is found.
The United States believes that most countries, if able, should be taking researching and furthering progress in the field of autonomous weapons systems for defense from both domestic and foreign threats. The United States however, advises other countries not to send drones against questionable targets, and most importantly not to endanger civilians. Some countries have been known to either been weak to regimes or coups as well, and having this type of weapon fall into the wrong hands is dangerous and a threat to all nations. Furthering progress in this field could also have war evolve into a more robot based combat, reducing casualties.
Human judgment over autonomous weapons systems improves the accuracy and reliability of them as well. They may not know when to leave a hostile situation, or may confuse two faces as well. Having an intelligent operator may also minimize the negative effects of bad coding, if a robot handles a situation very poorly the operator would be able to take over and remedy the situation a lot easier than a robot.
The United States believes that the continuation of research into the field of autonomous weapons systems is beneficial if in the right hands, and that the legal responsibilities surrounding them are easy to fix and clear up. By allowing them, countries like us, the United States, will be able to better defend ourselves and ensure protection for other countries as well.
Works Cited
Meeting, Expert. (n.d.): 1-106. IIRC. IIRC. Web. 3 Nov. 2015. <https://www.icrc.org/en/download/file/1707/4221-002-autonomous-weapons-systems-full-report.pdf>.
"US Defends Drone Strikes as 'necessary and Just' in Face of UN Criticism."The Guardian. The Guardian, n.d. Web. 3 Nov. 2015. <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/25/un-drones-us-policy-debate>.
