Military technology assessment and preventive arms control: Fundamental issues, natural-science peace research, and present challenges

Jürgen Altmann

doi:10.14512/tatup.7257

Authors

Jürgen Altmann Experimental Physics III, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund (DE) juergen.altmann@tu-dortmund.de

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14512/tatup.7257

Keywords:

military technology assessment, preventive arms control, peace research, emerging technologies

Abstract

Military technologies have so far been largely neglected in technology assessment (TA), even though they can have devastating consequences and their very purpose is to cause damage, injury, and death. While an individual state can establish and enforce rules for civilian technologies, in the anarchic international system there is no higher authority that can regulate military technologies – restrictions and prohibitions can only come about through voluntary agreements between states. Military TA starts with a natural-science/technical analysis, evaluates the results against a set of criteria, and then develops options for preventive restrictions. The article outlines examples from such past and current work, showing that emerging military technologies pose particular challenges for TA.

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