Just war means a justified war. But what justifies a war? Can letting machines kill be justified? How and where is war regulated? And how are the philosophical and legal frameworks of war connected? Iben Yde, lawyer and consultant at Rethink Advisory, explains and gives an account of her role as a military lawyer and advisor.

Claus Borg Reinholdt, correspondent for TV2 Denmark, tells a horrifying story of a drone siege of Kherson, Ukraine.

Besides explaining how war is regulated, Iben Yde provides her perspectives on the black box problem, the notion of meaningful human control, programming ethics into machines, and the future of regulating autonomous weapons through the CCW and GGE, UN system.

Shownotes:

Producer and host: Sune With [email protected]

Cover artwork: Sebastian Gram

Arkin, C. Ronald, 2009, “Governing Lethal Behaviour in Autonomous Robots”, CRC Press.

Arkin, Ronald C., 2010, ”The Case for Ethical Autonomy in Unmanned Systems”, Journal of Military Ethics, 9:4, 332-341

Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) (Accessed Feb 25. 2025).

https://disarmament.unoda.org/the-convention-on-certain-conventional-weapons/

Geneva Conventions and the rules of war with comments. ICRC (Accessed Feb 25. 2025).

https://www.icrc.org/en/law-and-policy/geneva-conventions-and-their-commentaries

Group of Governmental Experts, UN (Accessed Feb 25. 2025).

https://disarmament.unoda.org/group-of-governmental-experts/

Orend, Brian, 2016, "War", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2016

Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.) (Accessed Feb 25. 2025) 

https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/war/ - 2.2

RE-AIM Blueprint for Action, 2024 (Accessed Feb 25. 2025). 

https://www.reaim2024.kr/home/reaimeng/board/bbsDetail.do?encMenuId=4e57325766362f626e5179454e6d6e4d4a4d33507a773d3d&encBbsMngNo=366e794c7a644d756342425668444f393053755142673d3d&encBbsNo=6f784e4542386f7735767465766a6531556f4b6149413d3d&ctlPageNow=1&schKind=bbsTtlCn&schWord=%23this

Reinholdt, Claus Borg, November 11. 2024, News story on drone attacks in Kherson, Ukraine (Accessed Feb 28. 2025)

https://nyheder.tv2.dk/video/2024-11-11-russerne-terroriserer-lokalbefolkningen-med-droneangreb-fortaeller-tv-2-korrespondent-6364543133112

Responsibility to Protect, R2P, UN, 2005 (Accessed Feb 25. 2025).

https://www.un.org/en/genocide-prevention/responsibility-protect/about

Rethink Advisory, 2025 (Accessed Feb 25. 2025). 

https://www.rethinkadvisory.dk/

United Nations Charter, 26 June 1945 (Accessed Feb 25. 2025)

https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter

United Nations, 11. February 2025, “Short-range drones: The deadliest threat to civilians in Ukraine” (Assessed 12. March 2025)

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1160016

Walzer, Michael, 1977, 2015, “Just and Unjust Wars – a moral argument with historical illustrations”, Basic Books, fifth edition.

Yde, Iben, Galasz, Dahlberg, 2021, ”Smart krig – Militær anvendelse af kunstig intelligens”, DJØF’s forlag. 

Music: Sofus Forsberg