[Commlist] Call for contributions & Edited volume - The realities of autonomous weapons

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*The realities of autonomous weapons*
Call for contributions & Edited volume (under discussion with Bristol 
University Press)
Submission deadline: 10 January 2022
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The development of “Autonomous Weapon Systems” (AWS) has been subject to 
controversial discussions for years. Numerous political, academic or 
legal institutions and actors are debating the consequences and risks 
that arise with these technologies, in particular their ethical, social 
and political implications. Many are calling for strict regulation, even 
a global ban. Surprisingly, in these debates it is often unclear which 
technologies the term AWS primarily and precisely refers to. The 
associated meanings range from landmines to combat drones, from close-in 
weapon systems to humanoid robot soldiers or purely virtual cyber 
weapons. Besides this terminological ambiguity, it also remains 
inherently vague in what sense and to what degree these systems can be 
characterised as ‘autonomous’ at all.
It is this uncertainty, in which reality, imagination, possibility and 
fiction get conflated, that makes AWS highly momentous, in particular 
when political or military decision-making is being based on potential 
or virtual scenarios. Research publications on the topic of autonomous 
weapons usually focus on their legal, political or ethical 
ramifications. Necessarily, the foundation of these works is (at least 
in part) also based on those potential or virtual scenarios.
Against this background the publication project engages with the current 
social, political, cultural, ethical, security-related and military 
realities of autonomous weapons. The key proposition is that these can 
only be understood as a constant and complex dynamics between the actual 
technological developments and the potential futures that are associated 
with them. Only by reflecting and discussing fact, fiction and 
imagination, the real and the virtual, the full scope of this 
controversial technology becomes visible.
Submitted articles are expected to analyse the diverse meanings of AWS. 
The volume focuses especially on approaches which tackle the various 
practices, discourses and techniques by which AWS are imagined and 
created as a military and political reality.

Papers on the following larger themes are invited:
● Fictions and imaginaries around AWS, including both cultural texts 
that are marked as fiction (e.g. science-fiction films and novels etc.) 
and those marked as non-fiction in journalism, politics or research.
● A reflection of technologies and materialities, including specific 
human/machine entanglements of decision-making, technological agency or 
autonomy and ‘meaningful human control’. This reflection extends to 
larger philosophical motifs such as legal or moral responsibility, free 
will or consciousness.
● the specific understandings and interpretations of AWS that are 
applied in political and ethical contexts, with a particular focus on 
the ways these meanings are translated into a political course of 
action, thus creating a reality in their own right.

Relevant issues, phenomena and perspectives include but are not limited to
● the anticipated futures of AWS and their implications for global 
military and security policies, regulatory and legal initiatives or 
military operations, in light of their use by states as well as 
non-state actors (e.g. terrorist groups or companies).
● the historical perspectives (on imaginations and technological 
developments), political and military contexts and discourses (including 
policies and political communication) and representations in popular 
culture (e.g. killer robots or drone wars).
● the potentials, risks, narratives and aesthetics that are associated 
with AWS, including cross-cultural and historical differences that 
expressly include those of and from the global South.

We welcome contributions from scholars of diverse disciplines, such as 
(but not limited to) media studies, cultural studies, literature and 
film studies, media and communication studies, political science, 
security studies, science and technology studies or sociology.

Submission process
● Abstracts of max. 500 words in length (excl. references) should be 
submitted no later than 10 January 2022 to (autonomous-weapons /at/ hiig.de) 
<mailto:(autonomous-weapons /at/ hiig.de)>
● Invitations for the submission of selected full manuscripts are sent 
out in February 2022.
● Full manuscripts between 6,000 and 8,000 words (excluding references) 
to be submitted by June 2022.
● Comprehensive review returned to authors in September 2022; final 
papers due in December 2022.
● It is anticipated that the peer-reviewed edited volume will be 
published in 2023.
● No payment from the authors will be required

If you have any questions, you can contact the editors via 
(autonomous-weapons /at/ hiig.de) <mailto:(autonomous-weapons /at/ hiig.de)>
See also: [Link 
<https://www.hiig.de/autonomous-weapons-call-for-contributions/>]



Editors
Dr. Thomas Christian Bächle
Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin

Jascha Bareis
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

PD Dr. Christoph Ernst
University of Bonn

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