Table Of ContentMilitarizing Artificial Intelligence
This book examines the military characteristics and potential of Artificial
Intelligence (AI) in the new global revolution in military affairs.
Offering an original perspective on the utilization, imagination, and politics of
AI in the context of military development and weapons regulation, the work pro-
vides a comprehensive response to the question of how we might reflect on the AI
revolution in warfare and what can be said about the ways in which this has been
handled. In the first part of the book, AI is accommodated, both theoretically
and empirically, in the strategic context of the ‘Revolution in Military Affairs’
(RMA). The book offers a novel understanding of autonomous weapons as multi-
layered composite systems, pointing to a complex, non-linear interplay between
evolutionary and revolutionary dynamics. In the second section, the book pro-
vides an impartial analysis of the related politics and operations of power, whereby
increases in military budgets and R&D of the great powers are met and countered
by advocacy networks and scientists campaigning for a ban on lethal autono-
mous weapons. As such, it moves beyond popular caricatures of ‘killer robots’ and
points out some of the problems which result from over-reliance on such imagery.
This book will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, critical secu-
rity studies, arms control and disarmament, science and technology studies, and
general International Relations.
Nik Hynek is a professor specializing in security studies at the Department of
Security Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University. He leads the
inter-scientific Charles University Research Centre of Excellence dedicated to
the topic of ‘Human-Machine Nexus and the Implications for the International
Order’.
Anzhelika Solovyeva is a lecturer specializing in strategic studies at the Depart-
ment of Security Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University. Her
latest monograph, co-authored with Nik Hynek, is The Logic of Humanitarian
Arms Control and Disarmament (2020).
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Militarizing Artificial Intelligence
Theory, Technology and Regulation
Nik Hynek and Anzhelika Solovyeva
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Militarizing Artificial
Intelligence
Theory, Technology, and Regulation
Nik Hynek and Anzhelika Solovyeva
First published 2022
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 Nik Hynek and Anzhelika Solovyeva
The right of Nik Hynek and Anzhelika Solovyeva to be identified as
authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hynek, Nik, author. | Solovyeva, Anzhelika, 1994– author.
Title: Militarising artificial intelligence : theory, technology and
regulation / Nik Hynek and Anzhelika Solovyeva.
Other titles: Militarizing artificial intelligence
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, [2022] |
Series: Routledge studies in conflict, security and technology |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022000868 (print) | LCCN 2022000869 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367492854 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367492878 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003045489 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Artificial intelligence—Military applications. |
Artificial intelligence—Military applications—Government policy. |
Weapons systems—Government policy. | Autonomous weapons systems
(International law)
Classification: LCC UG479 .H96 2022 (print) | LCC UG479 (ebook) |
DDC 359.00285/63—dc23/eng/20220307
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022000868
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022000869
ISBN: 978-0-367-49285-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-49287-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-04548-9 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003045489
Typeset in Goudy
by codeMantra
Contents
About the Authors vii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
PART I
Artificial Intelligence and Dynamics of Military Transformation 7
1 Artificial Intelligence and the Revolution in Military Affairs 9
2 Reconstruction: Artificial Intelligence in Multi-Layered
Composite Systems 30
3 Militarizing Artificial Intelligence in the US, Russia, and China 49
PART II
Autonomous Weapons Systems: Politics and Operations of Power 85
4 Dilemmas in Autonomous Weapons Systems 87
5 Over-securitizing Autonomous Weapons Systems:
The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots 113
6 Operations of Power in Autonomous Weapons
Systems Regulation 133
Conclusion 169
Index 179
About the Authors
Nik Hynek is a professor specializing in security studies at the Department of
Security Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University. He received
his research doctorate from the University of Bradford and was previously af-
filiated with SIWPS at Columbia University, LSE, ANU, Carleton University,
and Ritsumeikan University. He leads the inter-scientific Charles University
Research Centre of Excellence dedicated to the topic of ‘Human-Machine
Nexus and the Implications for the International Order’.
Anzhelika Solovyeva is a lecturer specializing in strategic studies at the Depart-
ment of Security Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University. She
also works as a doctoral researcher at the Charles University Research Cen-
tre of Excellence dedicated to the topic of ‘Human-Machine Nexus and the
Implications for the International Order’. Her latest monograph, co-authored
with Nik Hynek, is The Logic of Humanitarian Arms Control and Disarmament
(2020).
Acknowledgements
The preparation of this manuscript was undertaken with financial support
from Charles University, UNCE ‘Human-Machine Nexus and the Implications
for the International Order’ (UNCE/HUM/037). The book would have been
poorer without the comments of two anonymous readers whose challenges and
insights we gratefully acknowledge too. We owe a special debt to Xing Su for
kindly proofreading the entire manuscript. We would also like to acknowledge
that Chapter 4 is an updated and substantially rewritten version of Nik Hynek
and Anzhelika Solovyeva’s ‘Going Beyond the “Killer Robots” Debate: Six Di-
lemmas Autonomous Weapon Systems Raise’, Central European Journal of Inter-
national and Security Studies 12(3) (2018): 166–208; and that an earlier version
of Chapter 6 was previously published as Nik Hynek and Anzhelika Solovyeva’s
‘Operations of Power in Autonomous Weapon Systems: Ethical Conditions and
Socio- Political prospects’, AI & Society: Knowledge, Culture and Communication
36 (2021): 79–99. Finally, we wish to thank our families for their long-standing
support and encouragement of our academic endeavours.
