Description
Nuclear weapons and autonomous weapons systems (AWS) seem like disparate weapons categories at first – the first having demonstrated the sheer indiscriminate destructiveness of their use, the latter portrayed as a futuristic military technology. However, both are also imagined as either apocalyptic super weapons that need to be banned, or as indispensable to states’ national survival and the international security architecture. Different actors deploy multiple and diverse imaginaries as visions of the future to make sense of nuclear weapons and AWS alike, and to legitimise or delegitimise policies of their regulation. Discussions in multilateral fora portray AWS as either potential killer robots or as a technology to increase accuracy and precision in the use of force; nuclear weapons are characterised as either the ultimate weapon of mass destruction or as a necessary deterrent. Our paper explores the discourses surrounding both weapons technologies, asking where actors develop similar imaginaries, where discourses intersect, and how this shapes attempts to regulate weapons technology. This comparison between the imaginaries used to make sense of nuclear weapons and AWS can help us shed light on the co-constitution of political orders and violent technologies.
