Law and the Future of War: Recent Episodes
UQ Law and the Future of War
Through conversation with experts in technology, law and military affairs, this series explores how new military technology and international law interact. Produced by Dr Lauren Sanders at The University of Queensland School of Law.
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In this episode, Simon speaks with Dr Katharine Fortin about non-international armed conflicts, focussing on the intersections between IHL, international human rights law and armed non-State actors.
Dr Katharine Fortin is a senior lecturer of public international law and human rights at Utrecht University's Netherlands Institute of Human Rights. She is the Editor in Chief of the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights and founder of the Armed Groups and International Law blog. Her book The Accountability of Armed Groups under Human Rights Law(OUP, 2017) won the Lieber Prize in 2018. She is Co-Investigator on the Beyond Compliance Consortium: Building Evidence on Promoting Restraint by Armed Actors. Katharine has a LLM and PhD from the Utrecht University. She is a qualified solicitor in the UK and previously worked at Norton Rose Fulbright, the Council of Churches of Sierra Leone, the ICC and the ICTY.
Additional resources:
- Fortin, Katharine ‘Mapping Calamities: Capturing the Competing Legalities of Spaces under the Control of armed non State Actors without erasing everyday civilian life’ (2023) 8(1) Social Science and Humanities Open
- Matthew Bamber-Zryd, 'ICRC engagement with armed groups in 2024' Humanitarian Law & Policy Blog (31 October 2024)
- Katharine Fortin and Ezequiel Heffes (eds), Armed Groups and International Law: In the Shadowland of Legality and Illegality (Edward Elgar, 2023)
- Naz Modirzadeh, 'Cut These Words: Passion and International Law of War Scholarship' (2020) 61(1) Harvard International Law Journal 1.
- Zoe Pearson, 'Spaces of International Law' (2008) 17 Griffith Law Review 489.
- Helen Kinsella, The Image Before the Weapon: A Critical History of the Distinction between Combatant and Civilian (Cornell University Press, 2015)
- Kieran McIvoy, 'Beyond Legalism: Towards a Thicker Understanding of Transitional Justice' (2007) 34(4) Journal of Law and Society 411.
- Sally Engle Merry, The Seductions of Quantification: Measuring Human Rights, Gender Violence and Sex Trafficking (University of Chicago Press, 2016)
- Ana Arjona, Rebelocracy: Social Order in the Colombian Civil War(CUP, 2016)
- Zachariah Cherian Mampilly, Rebel Rulers: Insurgent
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In this episode, Simon speaks to Professor Helen Kinsella and Associate Professor Giovanni Mantilla, two leading experts on the history and formation of the Geneva Conventions and IHL more generally. They discuss the negotiations leading up the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol, exploring some of the political tensions that sits behind the provisions of these key legal texts. This includes how the law treats non-state actors and non-international armed conflict, as well who gets the right to wage war.
Helen Kinsella is a Professor of Political Science and Law at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on the theorization of gender and armed conflict and she is currently working on a book on sleep in war and another on the histories of the laws of war through the United States' wars against Native peoples. She is the author of The Image before the Weapon (Cornell University Press, 2011), which won the 2012 Sussex International Theory Prize. Helen has a PhD in Political Science and an MA in Public Policy from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and a BA in Political Science and Gender Studies from Bryn Mawr College.
Giovanni Mantilla is an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University, Fellow of Christ’s College, and Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law. His research focusses on the operation of multilateralism, particularly practices of social pressure and pressure management in diplomacy, global governance, and international legal processes. His book Lawmaking under Pressure: International Humanitarian Law and Internal Armed Conflict(Cornell University Press, 2020) received the 2021 Francis Lieber award.
Additional Resources
- Helen M Kinsella and Giovanni Mantilla, 'Contestation before Compliance: History, Politics, and Power in International Humanitarian Law' (2020) 64(3) International Studies Quarterly 649.
- Helen Kinsella, 'Settler Empire and the United States: Francis Lieber on the Laws of War' (2023) 117(2) American Political Science Review 629.
- Vasuki Nesiah, International Conflict Feminism: Theory, Practice, Challenges (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024)
- Thomas Gregory, Weaponizing Civilian Protection (Oxford University Press, 2025)
- Tom Dannenbaum, 'Siege Starvation: A War Crime of Societal Torture' (2021) 22(2) Chicago Journal of International Law 368.
- Boyd Van Dijk, Preparing for War: The Making of the Geneva Conventions (Oxford University Press, 2022)
- Craig Jones, The War Lawyers: The United States, Israel and Juridical Warfare (Oxford University Press, 2020)
- Janina Dill, Legitimate Targets? Social Construction, International Law and US Bombing (Cambridge University Press, 2014)
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In this series introduction, Dr Lauren Sanders and Dr Simon McKenzie talk about the Geneva Conventions, and what is in store for the Law and the Future of War podcast over the next few months.
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This episode is a recording of the Asia-Pacific Institute for Law and Security webinar hosted on 21 November 2024 on the functional approach to the legal review of autonomous weapon systems (AWS).
AWS are no longer limited to science fiction. Conflicts in the Ukraine and Gaza demonstrate an increased trend toward the use of autonomy in the use of force in armed conflict. This webinar will focus on the legal review obligation under Article 36 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, and will consider how states can determine the legality of AWS. The event will launch a new book by Dr Damian Copeland on the topic and include a panel of experts discussing the challenges in ensuring the development and use of AWS are lawful and ethical.
Ms Vanessa Wood (Australia’s Ambassador for Arms Control Counter-Proliferation) will make some opening remarks, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Dr Lauren Sanders (APILS). Dr Wen Zhou (ICRC Legal Division), Ms Netta Goussac (SIPRI), Dr Natalia Jevglevskaja (APILS) and Dr Damian Copeland (APILS) will speak on the panel. Dr Rain Liivoja (APILS) will host the webinar.
See Dr Copeland's book here: A Functional Approach to the Legal Review of Autonomous Weapon Systems, Brill International Humanitarian Law Series Volume 72, 2024.
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In this episode we continue our futures mini-series, and speak with Dr Simon Ng and Ms Clare East about the challenges of adopting novel technology and influencing its regulation. In particular, as the Chief Scientist and Manager of Law, Regulation and Assurance at the Trusted Autonomous Defence Cooperative Research Centre, we hope to tease out the regulatory and engineering challenges associated with advancing adoption of novel military technologies that have been learned through TAS’ tenure.
Dr Simon Ng is Chief Technology Officer at TAS. Graduating from Monash University with a PhD in 1998, he completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at CSIRO before joining DSTG, where he developed techniques for military operations experimentation, and applied systems methods to surveillance and response, space operations and autonomous aerial systems. He was previously DSTG Group Leader for the Joint Systems Analysis and Aerial Autonomous Systems Groups, and Associate Director of the Defence Science Institute. He is Australia’s National Lead on The Technical Cooperation Program Technical Panel “UAS Integration into the Battlespace”, and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Clare East is General Manager – Law, Regulation & Assurance at TAS, and Director of East Consulting Services. Clare is a lawyer by background with significant expertise in modern regulatory approaches, and has helped a range of different organisations respond to and harness the challenges and opportunities posed by rapid change. Clare has more than ten years in public policy and regulation, having started her career at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet before moving on to a number of private and public sector roles, including as Manager, Maritime Regulation at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and Director, Regulatory Standards and Policy at the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator.
Additional resources:
- Alondra Nelson, The Right Way to Regulate AI: Focus on Its Possibilities, Not Its Perils, Foreign Affairs, 12 January 2024
- J. Robert Oppenheimer, International Control of Atomic Energy, Foreign Affairs, January 1948
- Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun, 2021
- Robotic and Autonomous Systems Gateway (RAS Gateway), Trusted Autonomous Systems
- Rachel Horne (2024) Navigating to smoother regulatory waters for Australian commercial vessels capable of remote or autonomous operation. PhD by Publication, Queensland University of Technology.
- Australian Department of Industry, Science and Resources, The Australian Government’s interim response to safe and responsible AI consultation, January 2024
In this episode we hear from Professor Dale Stephens on the long-awaited release of The Woomera Manual on the International Law of Military Space Operations, how it came about, what it is intended to do, and where international law might be headed in relation to military space operations - as well as the challenges in drafting an international law Manual dealing with the law in a highly changing and novel domain. Released in May this year, the Woomera Manual focuses on the law as it is, and creates a set of Rules and accompanying Commentary dealing with international law in a military space context.
Professor Dale Stephens CSM FAAL is a Professor at the University of Adelaide and a Captain in the Royal Australian Navy Reserve. He has occupied senior legal positions in the Australian Defence Force and undertook numerous operational deployments. He is Director of the Adelaide University Research Unit on Military Law and Ethics. He researches and teaches in the areas of International Law, Space Law, Military Operations Law and Law of Armed Conflict. He is Chair of the SA Red Cross IHL Committee. He was awarded his LL.M and SJD from Harvard Law School and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law.
Additional Resources:
The Woomera Manual
The Artemis Accords
OEWG on Responsible Behaviours in Space
In this episode we dive into issues of human-machine teaming, with human factors engineer Jan Maarten Schraagen. Having edited the recently released book, Responsible Use of AI in Military Systems, Jan Maarten is an expert on how brittle technologies influence joint cognitive system performance. In this episode, in addition to exploring the book, we explore the outcomes of the 2023 REAIM Summit and what we can hope for from the 2024 Summit; talk about multidisciplinarity in the responsible military AI debate; and how we should be thinking about capability envelope of military AI - that is, how it can or should be restricted in the conditions under which it can operate.
Jan Maarten Schraagen is a cognitive systems engineer at TNO, and studies how brittle technologies influence joint cognitive system performance. He is a human factors specialist with broad experience in optimizing work processes and teamwork design. He is particularly interested in making work safe, productive and healthy, and improving resilience in sociotechnical work systems.
Additional resources:
- Jan Maarten Schraagen (ed), Responsible Use of AI in Military Systems, CRC Press, 2024
- Ekelhof, M.A.C. (2018). Lifting the Fog of Targeting: “Autonomous Weapons” and Human Control through the Lens of Military Targeting. Naval War College Review, 71(3), 61-94.
- Ekelhof, M.A.C. (2019). Moving beyond semantics on autonomous weapons: Meaningful human control in operation. Global Policy, 10(3), 343-348.
- Endsley, M.R. (2017). From here to autonomy: Lessons learned from human-automation research. Human Factors, 59(1), 5-27.
- Taddeo, M., & Blanchard, A. (2022). A comparative analysis of the definitions of autonomous weapons systems. Science and Engineering Ethics, 28, 37-59.
- Herbert Simon, Bounded Rationality, Utility and Probability, NPA, 1990
- Peeters, M.M.M., van Diggelen, J., van den Bosch, K., Bronkhorst, A., Neerincx, M.A., Schraagen, J.M., Raaijmakers, S. (2021). Hybrid collective intelligence in a human–AI society. AI and Society, 36(1), 217-238.
- Schraagen, J.M.C., Barnhoorn, J.S., Van Schendel, J., & Van Vught, W. (2022). Supporting teamwork in hybrid multi-team systems. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, 23(2), 199-220.
- Van der Kleij, R., Schraagen, J.M.C., Cadet, B., & Young, H.J. (2022). Developing decision support for cybersecurity threat and incident managers. Computers & Security, 113, 102535.
- Schraagen, J.M.C. (2023). Responsible use of AI in military systems: Prospects and challenges. Ergonomics, 66(11), 1719 – 1729.
Part of the ongoing debate about the lawfulness of autonomy in military systems in the manner in which the technology integrates with and interacts with its human masters. The term Meaningful Human Control (or MHC) has garnered particular relevance in this debate. Today we speak with Dr Lena Trabucco about her upcoming OpinioJuris Symposium on Military AI and the Law of Armed Conflict, co-edited with Dr Magda Packholska, on this issue, as well as her work on legal challenges associated with emerging technology more broadly.
Lena is a research fellow, a visiting scholar at the Stockton Center for International Law at the US Naval War College, and research fellow at the Technology, Law and Security Program at American University College of Law and the University of Copenhagen. Her research focuses on the intersection of international law and emerging military technology, particularly autonomous weapon systems. She has multiple projects examining human control throughout an autonomous weapon system life cycle. Previously, she was a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Military Studies at the University of Copenhagen. Lena received a PhD in law from the University of Copenhagen and a PhD in international relations from Northwestern University.
Additional resources:
- Opinio Juris Symposium on Military AI and the Law of Armed Conflict
- Kevin Jon Heller, 'The Concept of 'The Human' in the Critique of Autonomous Weapons', 14 Harvard National Security Journal (2023)
- Magdalena Pacholska, 'Military Artificial Intelligence and the Principle of Distinction: A State Responsibility Perspective', Israel Law Review (2022), 1–21
- Rebecca Crootof, 'A Meaningful Floor for 'Meaningful Human Control', Temple International & Comparative Law Journal, Vol. 30, 2016
- Kenneth Payne's Substack
- Killer Robot Cocktail Party (Lena and Brad Boyd's substack)
In this episode, Dr Lauren Sanders speaks with Professor Stuart Casey-Maslen about Directed Energy Weapons. They traverse the existing legal controls on these weapons, and speak about the potential for future regulation of novel uses of energy weapons in armed conflict.
This conversation preceded a presentation by Dr Casey-Maslen, Dr Sanders and Dr Altman for UNIDIR, which was a side event to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons Meeting of States Parties, held in November 2023.
Stuart Casey-Maslen is an international lawyer and Professor at the University of Pretoria, specialising in the use of force and the protection of civilians, and he has published numerous books and articles on this topic. He is also an Associate Fellow within the Global Fellowship Initiative of the GCSP.
Additional Resources:
- United Nations Human Rights Guidance on Less-Lethal Weapons in Law Enforcement, 01 June 2020.
- ICRC Expert Meeting on Legal Reviews of Weapons and the SlrUS Project.
- A/78/324: Thematic study on the global trade in weapons, equipment and devices used by law enforcement and other public authorities that are capable of inflicting torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, 24 Aug 23.
As part of our ‘futures’ mini-series, in this episode we are looking specifically at Algorithmic Futures, with hosts of the podcast of the same name: Dr Zena Assaad and Dr Elizabeth Williams, both from ANU. Today we are going to specifically focus on the breadth of the design and uncertainty problem for capabilities augmented by algorithms.
Elizabeth T. Williams is an Associate Professor in the School of Engineering at the Australian National University (ANU). She has a PhD in experimental nuclear structure from Yale University. Since joining the ANU in 2012, Liz has held an ARC DECRA Fellowship, mucked about with accelerators, code, and superheavy elements, and explored complexity in real-world technological systems. She also led the creation of the hands-on half of the Masters of Applied Cybernetics, convened the School of Cybernetics 2021 PhD cohort program, and will soon convene the newly created Nuclear Systems major and minor for the School of Engineering’s Bachelor of Engineering programs.
Zena Assaad is a senior research fellow within the School of Engineering at the Australian National University (ANU). Zena studied a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering and completed a PhD exploring decision-making under uncertainty to support strategic air traffic flow management. Zena currently holds a fellowship position under the ethics uplift program with trusted autonomous systems, exploring human-machine teaming; and is also a fellow with the Australian Army Research Centre researching autonomy in swarms and human-machine teams.
Additional Resources:
- Algorithmic Futures - podcast by Zena Assaad and Liz Williams
- Klara and the Sun - K Ishaguro, 2021
- The Ironies of Automation - L Bainbridge, Automatica, Vol. 19, No. 6. pp. 775 779, 1983
Continuing our future of war series, this episode dives into the legal implications of increasing transparency of the battlespace as a result of technological change; and looks at developments in biological warfare that challenge the long-standing prohibition on biological weapons at international law. We speak with Rob Lawless from the Leiber Institute, at the Westpoint Academy to hear more.
Robert Lawless is an Associate Professor in the Department of Law at the United States Military Academy, West Point. He teaches various courses, including military law and the law of armed conflict. He is also the Research Director of the Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare and one of the editors of Articles of War.
Professor Lawless previously spent ten years as an active-duty military officer in the U.S. Army JAG Corps., serving in several positions advising commanders on legal issues. He also spent almost three years as an Army litigator, representing both the U.S. government and individual soldiers in courts-martial and other military justice forums.
Additional resources:
- Lieber Studies Series
- Articles of War Blog
- Professor Nasu's works on nanotechnology
- 1925 Geneva Protocol
- Biological Weapons Convention
- Sean Watts, Law-of-War Perfidy, 219 Mil L. Rev. 106 (2014)
In this third episode in our futures mini-series, we continue our scoping of the utility of seeking to predict the future of war; before deep diving into emerging and disruptive technologies. Recorded in late September 2023, we are speaking with Artur Gruszczak about the Future of War, and his recently edited Handbook on the same topic, released by Routledge this September.
Artur Gruszczak holds a PhD in Political Science from Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Currently he holds an appointment there as an Associate Professor of Political Science, Chair of National Security at the Faculty of International and Political Studies. Since 2014 he has been Faculty Member of the European Academy Online run by the Centre international de formation européenne in Nice. His academic interests and research areas include: security studies, EU area of freedom, security and justice, intelligence cooperation in the European Union, and the evolution of modern warfare.
Additional resources:
- Handbook of the Future of Warfare, Edited By Artur Gruszczak, Sebastian Kaempf, Routledge, 2023
- The Weaponisation of Everything, Mark Galeotti, Yale University Press, 2023
- New and Old Wars, Mary Kaldor, Stanford University Press, 2012
- Pearl Harbour: Warning and Decision, Roberta Wohlstetter, Stanford University Press, 1962
- Theorising Future Conflict, Mark Lacy, Routledge 2024.
- War Transformed, Mick Ryan 2022.
- The Future of War: A History, Lawrence Freedman 2018.
- Warrior Geeks, Christopher Coker, 2013.
Recorded in early September 2023, this episode continues our futures mini-series, where we speak with Dr Ian Langford and Professor David Killcullen about the future of war in the Indo-Pacific region. In this episode we will be getting a download on what the change in geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific means for Australia, and how that might impact choices relating to technology, acquisitions and their subsequent use and regulation; as well as discussing what the future of proxy warfare and modern counterinsurgency might look like.
Dr Ian Langford, DSC and Bars, is a member of a member of UNSW’s Future Operations Research Group and is a strategic adviser with UBH Group, a leading Sovereign Information Domain (SID) company. Dr Langford is a regular contributor to the Australian Army Research Centre, and in addition to being a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Marine Corps Command and Staff College and the School of Advanced Warfighting, he has recently retired from the Australian Army as a Brigadier where he filled multiple senior roles including – relevant to our discussion today – as the Army’s Director General of Future Land Warfare and the Head of Land Capability.
Dr David Kilcullen is a former soldier and diplomat, and a scholar of guerrilla warfare, terrorism, urbanisation and the future of conflict, who served 25 years for the Australian and United States governments. During the Iraq War, he served in Baghdad as a member of the Joint Strategic Assessment Team, then as Senior Counterinsurgency Advisor, Multi-National Force Iraq in 2007, before becoming Special Advisor for Counterinsurgency to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on counterinsurgency; and in addition to holding senior academic roles across a number of institutions, he has written six books on counterinsurgency.
Additional resources:
- Australian Defence Strategic Review
- USMC Stand-In Force Concept
- UK Future Commando Force Concept
In this episode, we conclude our interview with Dr Charles Adeogun-Phillips, discussing guilty pleas and their development in international criminal law.
Dr Charles A. Adeogun-Phillips is an accomplished international lawyer and former lead international prosecutor. He founded the cross-border law firm of Charles Anthony LLP, following a distinguished legal career at the UN, wherein he successfully led teams of international prosecutors in 12 precedent-setting genocide trials before the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, making him arguably one of the most experienced and successful genocide prosecutors in history. In 2021, he was called to the Bar of England and Wales as a transferring Solicitor, by the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, and practises as a Barrister from the prestigious Guernica 37 (International Justice) Chambers in London and The Hague. In 2022, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) by his alma mater, Warwick University, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the development of international criminal law. He contributed to the book International Criminal Investigations, Law, and Practice—“The Challenges of International Investigations and Prosecutions: Perspectives of a Prosecutor” published by Eleven International, The Hague in 2018. He is the focal point for Nigeria at the ICC Bar Association.
Additional Resources
- Nancy Combs
- Kosovo Specialist Chambers
- Special Panels for Serious Crimes (East Timor).
In this interview, we are speaking with Dr Charles Adeogun-Phillips about the history of guilty pleas in international criminal law, as an author of a chapter on the same topic, as part of the edited works, Contemporary International Criminal Law Issues - Contributions in Pursuit of Accountability for Africa and the World. The challenges associated with the running of international criminal trials are extensive, and establishing a process for plea bargaining, to satisfactorily address some of the legal challenges associated with atrocity crimes, is an even more delicate one.
Today we are talking with Dr Adeogun-Phillips about how this process has evolved over the course of the ad hoc tribunals, and what plea bargaining means in terms of accountability for international criminal offences.
Dr Charles A. Adeogun-Phillips is an accomplished international lawyer and former lead international prosecutor. He founded the cross-border law firm of Charles Anthony LLP, following a distinguished legal career at the UN, wherein he successfully led teams of international prosecutors in 12 precedent-setting genocide trials before the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, making him arguably one of the most experienced and successful genocide prosecutors in history. In 2021, he was called to the Bar of England and Wales as a transferring Solicitor, by the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, and practises as a Barrister from the prestigious Guernica 37 (International Justice) Chambers in London and The Hague. In 2022, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) by his alma mater, Warwick University, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the development of international criminal law. He contributed to the book International Criminal Investigations, Law, and Practice—“The Challenges of International Investigations and Prosecutions: Perspectives of a Prosecutor” published by Eleven International, The Hague in 2018. He is the focal point for Nigeria at the ICC Bar Association.
We continue this international criminal law mini-series by speaking with Natacha Bracq, who wrote a chapter on gender and sexual-based violence in Contemporary International Criminal Law Issues - Contributions in Pursuit of Accountability for Africa and the World, which deals with a range of issues impacting contemporary ICL practice in Africa and around the world.
Her chapter, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: What Legacy for the New ICC Prosecutor? focuses on the International Criminal Court specifically, highlighting that the court still struggles to effectively address such crimes and continues to repeat the errors of the past.
Natacha works as a Legal Advisor with Dignity, the Danish Institute against Torture, and is also the founder of the first blog entirely dedicated to ICL in the French language (www.blogdip.org). Previously, amongst other roles, she worked as a lawyer at the Paris Bar and as the Senior Officer for Training and Capacity Building at the International Nuremberg Principles Academy. She has worked with Wayne Jordash QC before various international tribunals including the ICJ, ICTY, and ICC.
Additional Resources:
- Prosecuting Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes in the International Criminal Court, Rosemary Grey, 2019
- Prosecuting Conflict-Related Sexual Violence at the ICTY, edited by Baron Serge Brammertz and Michelle Jarvis, 2016
- International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict, June 2014, from the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office
- The Hague Principles on Sexual Violence
- The Murad Code
We start our futures mini-series by speaking with an eminent military historian on the future of warfare. In this episode we are delighted to be joined by Sir Lawrence Freedman. Recorded in September 2023 he joins us to talk about the future of warfare, having regard to his approach to predicting future war, as outlined in The Future of War: A History; and the update to this commentary, taking into account the lessons to be learned from the ongoing conflict in the Ukraine.: Modern Warfare: Lessons from Ukraine.
Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman is Emeritus Professor of War Studies, King's College London. Elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1995 and awarded the CBE in 1996, he was appointed Official Historian of the Falklands Campaign in 1997. In 2003, he was awarded the KCMG. In June 2009, he was appointed to serve as a member of the official inquiry into Britain and the 2003 Iraq War. He has written widely on international history, strategic theory and nuclear weapons issues, as well as commenting on current security issues.
Among his books are Strategy: A History (2013, OUP) and Command: The Politics of Military Operations from Korea to Ukraine (2023, Penguin).
You can read more of Freedman's commentary on his substack, Comment is Freed.
Additional resources:Lawrence Freedman: Modern Warfare, Lessons from Ukraine (2023, A Lowy Institute Paper/Penguin)
David Patreus and Andrew Roberts: Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine (2023, Harper Collins)
Mick Ryan: War Transformed (2022, Naval Institute Press).
Mick Ryan's substack: Futura Doctrina
Phillip O'Brien's substack: Phillip's Newsletter
We start this international criminal law mini-series by speaking with Mr Takeh Sendze, who is the editor of a recently published book, Contemporary International Criminal Law Issues - Contributions in Pursuit of Accountability for Africa and the World, which deals with a range of issues impacting contemporary ICL practice in Africa and around the world.
Takeh B.K. Sendze is a Cameroonian lawyer who received an LL.B. Honours degree from the University of Buea, Cameroon, in 1999 and an LL.M. in International Law from the University of Hull, UK, in 2002. He is an advocate of the New York State (USA) and Cameroon Bar Associations. He is currently a Legal Officer with the Office of the Prosecutor at the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, with almost two decades worth of professional experience in the fields of International Law, International Humanitarian Law, International Criminal Law/prosecution and International Human Rights. He is an experienced public speaker, trainer, mentor, guest lecturer and community leader.
Additional Resources
- Takeh's most recent publication, Contemporary International Criminal Law Issues: Contributions in Pursuit of Accountability for Africa and the World, edited alongside Adesola Adeboyejo, Howard Morrison and Sophia Ugwu
- The International Law Series, edited by William A. Schabas
- Contemporary Issues Facing the International Criminal Court, Richard H. Steinberg
- International Criminal Investigations: Law and Practice, Adejoké Babington-Ashaye, Aimée Comrie, Akingbolahan Adeniran
In this episode in the BarbieHeimer series, we focus on the history of the Manhattan Project and the accuracy of the Oppenheimer movie. We are speaking with nuclear historian Chris Griffith, about the history, and consequences of the atomic age. As a warning, if you haven’t seen the film we will be talking about the movie’s plot lines and breaking down some of its scenes!
Chris is an atomic historian who has created the online archive AtomicArchive, which is aimed at creating content to help the general public understand the science, history, and consequences of the atomic age. He has recently written for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to break down the historical accuracy of the film.
Additional Resources:
- Chris Griffith, 'A Manhattan Project historian comments on ‘Oppenheimer’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, 28 Jul 2023.
- Samuel Glasstone and Philip J. Dolan, The Effects of Nuclear Weapons(3rd ed, 1977)
- The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
- National Security Archive - The George Washington University
- Alec Wellerstein's webpage, and 'NUKEMAP' to simulate the effects of a nuclear explosion anywhere on the map.
Today we continue our ‘BarbieHeimer’ (or Barbenheimer) series, and are talking today about the meme itself. Is it appropriate to mash these two films together? Is this frivolity making light of the serious impacts of nuclear weapons and the need for a refocus on non-proliferation and disarmament efforts? We speak with a scholar of Visual Politics and Visual Research Methods – Emily Faux - whose doctoral studies focus on what pop culture can tell us about nuclear weapons.
Emily is a PhD candidate at Newcastle University, UK. Her thesis investigates nuclear weapons and war through popular film, television, and video game. She is interested in the contemporary story and popular imagination of nuclear weapons and war, as it exists in the current geopolitical climate. Emily teaches at the University of Leeds and is a member of the FemNukes network, a contributor for HighlyNRiched and has completed both the EU's Young Women in Non-Proliferation and Disarmament mentorship scheme and the University of California's Public Policy and Nuclear Threats course. Additional resources:
- Emily Faux: What Barbie can teach us about nuclear weapons, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, 3 August 2023
- Emily Faux: The Untold Stories Behind “Oppenheimer” , InkStick, 18 Jul 2023
- Nukespeak: the Media and the Bomb, edited by Crispin Aubrey
- John Mecklin, An extended interview with Christopher Nolan, director of Oppenheimer, 17 July 2023, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
- Jenny Johnston, Filmmaker on a Mission, 16 August 2020, N Square.
In this, the first of our Special Series on the BarbieHeimer phenomenon, we speak with international law of the sea expert, Professor Don Rothwell to find out what all the controversy was about in relation to the banning of the Barbie movie in Vietnam; the 9-Dash line; and the importance of maps in international law.
Professor Donald R Rothwell is one of Australia’s leading experts in International Law with specific focus on the law of the sea; law of the polar regions; use of force and implementation of international law within Australia. He is the author of 28 books and over 200 book chapters and articles including, with Tim Stephens, The International Law of the Sea 3rd ed, (IN PRESS). His most recent work is Islands and International Law (Hart: 2022).
Major career works include The Polar Regions and the Development of International Law (CUP, 1996), and International Law: Cases and Materials with Australian Perspectives 3rd (CUP: 2018).
Rothwell is also Editor-in-Chief of the Brill Research Perspectives in Law of the Sea. From 2012-2018 he was Rapporteur of the International Law Association (ILA) Committee on ‘Baselines under the International Law of the Sea’. Rothwell was previously Challis Professor of International Law and Director of the Sydney Centre for International and Global Law, University of Sydney (2004-2006), where he had taught since 1988. He has acted as a consultant or been a member of expert groups for UNEP, UNDP, IUCN, the Australian Government, and acted as advisor to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
In 2012 Rothwell was appointed an inaugural ANU Public Policy Fellow, and in 2015 elected as Fellow to the Australian Academy of Law. He is a regular media commentator on international law issues and has written over 100 opinion comments, including for all of the major daily newspapers in Australia and ABC Online ‘The Drum.
Additional Resources:
- Don Rothwell, What is the ‘nine-dash line’ and what does it have to do with the Barbie movie?, The Conversation, 4 July 2023 (images of the Barbie 8-Dash Line and the real 9-Dash Line are embedded in this story).
- Erik Franckx and Marco Benatar, ‘Dots and Lines in the South China Sea: Insights from the Law of Map Evidence’ (2012) 2 Asian Journal of International Law 89-118.
- Z. Gao and B. Jia, ‘The Nine-Dash Line in the South China Sea: History, Status, and Implications’ (2013) 107 (1) American Journal of International Law 98-123.
- Communications received with regard to the joint submission made by Malaysia and Viet Nam to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf – China (7 May 2009).
In this 'BarbieHeimer' special episode, we return to the plastic doll, to talk about materialism, symbolism and the souvenirs in international law. Emily Crawford and Jacqueline Mowbray walk us through their Souvenirs in International Law exhibit and project; and where Barbie features in their exhibit, as well as introducing us to Doudou Louis, the Louis Vuitton UNICEF Bear.
To submit your own international law souvenir: @atthevanishingpoint on Instagram.
Professor Emily Crawford is at the University of Sydney Law School, where she teaches and researches in international law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law. She has published widely in the field of international humanitarian law, including three monographs (The Treatment of Combatants and Insurgents under the Law of Armed Conflict (OUP 2010), Identifying the Enemy: Civilian Participation in Hostilities (OUP 2015) and Non-Binding Norms in International Humanitarian Law: Efficacy, Legitimacy and Legality (OUP 2021)) and a textbook (International Humanitarian Law (with Alison Pert, 2nd edition, CUP 2020)). She is an associate of the Sydney Centre for International Law at the University of Sydney, and a co-editor of the Journal of International Humanitarian Studies.
Associate Professor Jacqueline Mowbray also at the University of Sydney Law School, is the external legal adviser to Australia's Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. Her work uses critical theory to explore the operation of international law, and focuses on international law and language policy, and economic, social and cultural rights. Her monograph Linguistic Justice: International Law and Language Policy was published by OUP in 2012. Her second monograph, The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Commentary, Cases, and Materials (co-authored with Saul and Kinley) was winner of the 2015 American Society of International Law Certificate of Merit.
Additional Resources:
Jessie Hohmann and Daniel Joyce (eds), International Law's Objects, OUP, 2018.
Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, HUP, 1987.
Marcel Mauss, The Gift, Routledge, 1950.
For Barbie about town, see @intlawbarbie on Twitter/X!
In the second in our 'BarbieHeimer' series, we turn to the Oppenheimer movie and speak with world-renowned nuclear disarmament advocate and expert, Gareth Evans, about the opportunity the movie missed in re-energising efforts to the nuclear disarmament cause. We speak with him about the need for Australia to return to its former position of influence in arms control, to focus on a policy of 4D's:
- Doctrine of no first use;
- De-alerting early launch status of nuclear weapons;
- reducing Deployments of nuclear weapons; and
- Decreasing the number of nuclear weapons.
Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC KC FASSA FAIIA is Distinguished Honorary Professor at the Australian National University, where he was Chancellor from 2010-19. He was a Cabinet Minister in the Hawke and Keating Labor Governments from 1983-96, in the posts of Attorney General, Minister for Resources and Energy, Minister for Transport and Communications and - from 1988-96 - Foreign Minister. During his 21 years in Australian politics he was Leader of the Government in the Senate (1993-96) and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives (1996-98). From 2000 to 2009 he was President and CEO of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, the independent global conflict prevention and resolution organisation.He initiated the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, co-chaired the Australia-Japan International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, was founding convenor of the Asia Pacific Leadership Network on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN), and co-authored Nuclear Weapons: The State of Play (ANU, 2013 and 2015).
Additional resources:
- Gareth Evans, 'Nuclear weapons:“Oppenheimer” won’t make a difference, but Australia can', The Interpreter, 27 Jul 2023.
- Other publications by Gareth Evans, available here (see in particular: Lowering the Nuclear Temperature: Australia's role; Nuclear Weapons: The State of Play; Revisiting the case for No First Use of nuclear weapons; & Nuclear Disarmament: the global challenge.
- Australia-Japan ICNND Report Eliminating Nuclear Threats , Report of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, Co-Chair Yoriko Kawaguchi, 2009.
- George P. Shultz, William J. Perry, Henry A. Kissinger and Sam Nunn, 'A World Free of Nuclear Weapons', The Wall Street Journal, 4 Jan 2007.
- John Hersey, Hiroshima, Snowball Publishing, 1946.
- Ward Wilson Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons,Mariner Books, 2014.
- Ramesh Thakur, 'Four Myths about Nuclear Weapons,' Pearls and Irritations - John Menadue's Public Policy Journal, 4 June 2023.
In this interview, we are continuing our series on legal review of AWS, and speaking with two of the Law and Future of war research team, about an issue that impacts the design approaches to AWS: the alignment problem. In May 2023, there were reports of an AWS being tested, that turned upon its operator, and eventually cut its communications links so it could go after its originally planned mission... this prompted discussion about the alignment problem with AWS, impacting future TEVV strategies and regulatory approaches to this technology.
The conference referred to in the episode can be found in the notes to the attached link, with relevant excerpts extracted below: - Highlights from the RAeS Future Combat Air & Space Capabilities Summit (aerosociety.com):
'Could an AI-enabled UCAV turn on its creators to accomplish its mission? (USAF)
[UPDATE 2/6/23 - in communication with AEROSPACE - Col Hamilton admits he "mis-spoke" in his presentation at the Royal Aeronautical Society FCAS Summit and the 'rogue AI drone simulation' was a hypothetical "thought experiment" from outside the military, based on plausible scenarios and likely outcomes rather than an actual USAF real-world simulation saying: "We've never run that experiment, nor would we need to in order to realise that this is a plausible outcome". ]
Col Tucker ‘Cinco’ Hamilton, the Chief of AI Test and Operations, USAF, ... cautioned against relying too much on AI noting how easy it is to trick and deceive.
... Said Hamilton: “We were training it in simulation to identify and target a SAM threat. And then the operator would say yes, kill that threat. The system started realising that while they did identify the threat at times the human operator would tell it not to kill that threat, but it got its points by killing that threat. So what did it do? It killed the operator. It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective.”
Dr Brendan Walker-Munro is a Senior Research Fellow with the University of Queensland's Law and the Future of War research group. Brendan's research focus is on criminal and civil aspects of national security law, and the role played by intelligence agencies, law enforcement and the military in investigating and responding to critical incidents. He is also interested in the national security impacts of law on topics such as privacy, identity crime and digital security.
Dr Sam Hartridge is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Queensland. His research is currently examining the interplay between technical questions of AI safety, AI risk management frameworks and standards, and foundational international and domestic legal doctrine.
Additional Resources:
- Autonomy in weapons systems: playing catch up with technology - Humanitarian Law & Policy Blog (icrc.org)
- Striking Blind | The Forge (defence.gov.au)Concrete Problems in AI Safety (arxiv.org)
- The Superintelligent Will: Motivation and Instrumental Rationality in Advanced Artificial Agents (researchgate.net)
- The Surprising Creativity of Digital Evolution: A Collection of Anecdotes from the Evolutionary Computation and Artificial Life Research Communities (arxiv.org)
Colonel Damian Copeland, Director of Operations and International Law, Defence Legal (a and Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Queensland), talks with Dr Lauren Sanders about an Expert Meeting held in March 2023, hosted by the Australian Defence Force, with a number of other States, industry and academia, participating seeking to understand how information can be exchanged and best practices can be shared in the legal review of autonomous weapon systems.
Additional Resources:
- ICRC, A Guide to the Legal Review of New Weapons Means and Methods of Warfare, as of 2006 and 2020
- Find LAFW's publications here
- Jevglevskaja N (2021) International Law and Weapons Review, Cambridge University Press
- McFarland, Tim (2020) Autonomous weapon systems and the law of armed conflict: compatibility with international humanitarian law, Cambridge University Press.
As part of our new, limited series on the Legal Review of AWS, we speak with two researchers from the Asser Institute on what the legal review obligation means for decision support systems, and what technical challenges exist in approaching the review obligation during the design and development phases in the creation of AWS.
Taylor Kate Woodcock is a PhD researcher in public international law at the Asser Institute/University of Amsterdam. Her research, conducted in the context of the DILEMA project on Designing International Law and Ethics into Military Artificial Intelligence, examines the implications of the development and use of military applications of artificial intelligence (AI) for current international legal frameworks governing armed conflict. In particular, this research project explores the relationship between these legal frameworks and the concept of human agency, with a view to considering whether international law can be accounted for in the design of military AI and the military infrastructures in which these algorithms are embedded.
Klaudia Klonowska is a PhD Candidate in International Law at the Asser Institute and the University of Amsterdam. She studies the interactions of humans and AI-enabled decision-support systems in the military decision-making process and the consequences thereof to the compliance of military practices with international humanitarian and human rights law. She is a member of the research project Designing International Law and Ethics into Military Artificial Intelligence (DILEMA).
Additional resources:
- Asser's DILEMA project - publications on Article 36 and AWS including how to translate legal obligations to code, philosophy of use of AWS, state responsibility and AWS , criminal responsibility and AWS.
- Klaudia Klonowska, Article 36: Review of AI Decision-Support Systems and Other Emerging Technologies of Warfare, Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law (YIHL), Volume 23 (2020), The Hague: T.M.C. Asser Press (2021)
- DILEMA Statement on the Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence in the Military
The discussion about AI regulation and law has been hampered by a lack of understanding about what AI actually is and what it can do. To date, there is no agreed definition of what constitutes AI; not any likely international consensus, with many states and NGOs adopting their own definitions. This problem is then compounded when it comes to defining (and confining) what constitutes lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS).
In this episode Dr Lauren Sanders interviews Dr Zygmunt Szpak, a computer scientist and executive director of Insight Via Artificial Intelligence (IVAI), to discuss some of these difficult questions.
IVAI does research, development and deployment of AI, and also educates Defence industry on what AI is and how it can be used. The company is a member of the Defence AI Research Network and is currently working on Science, Technology and Research (STaR) Shots, which are challenging, inspirational and aspirational S&T missions that will align strategic research to force structure priorities.
Prior to co-founding IVAI, Zygmunt spent over a decade working as a Senior Research Associate at the University of Adelaide, in the Australian Centre for Visual Technologies which then became the Australian Institute for Machine Learning. Zygmunt remains an adjunct senior lecturer at the Institute.
Additional Resources
- The Prediction Machines website
- The European Commission's report, Shaping Europe's digital future, which includes 'A Definition of Artificial Intelligence: main capabilities and scientific disciplines'
- The movie, 'Hidden Figures'
- The 'AI and Deep Learning' collection, created by the Two Minute Papers Youtube Channel.
In this special episode, members of the Law and Future of War research project discuss two significant events occurring in the week of 17 March 2023 relating to criminal justice for alleged war crimes:
-
The ICC arrest warrant issued in respect of the situation in Ukraine, and President Vladimir Putin's role in the alleged deportation of children from Ukraine since February 2022; and
-
The Australian domestic arrest of a former Australian Defence Force trooper for the war crime of murder alleged to have occurred in Afghanistan in 2012.
Dr Lauren Sanders is joined by Professor Rain Liivoja and Dr Simon McKenzie to explore what these warrants mean for international and domestic accountability for breaches of the law of armed conflict.
Note: the views presented in this episode are those of the speakers and do not represent the views of any organisation or any government.
In this episode, Dr Lauren Sanders speaks to Dr Paul Scharre, Vice President and Director of Studies at CNAS (the Centre for a New American Security), is a leading author on autonomous weapons and the impact of AI in the military. He has an extensive background in the drafting and implementation of policy relating to the current and future use of autonomy and artificial intelligence in the military; and has squeezed us in amid his book launch commitments for his most recent book, Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. It addresses the issue of global power in the face of the battle to control artificial intelligence, and how the next industrial revolution will impact the future of war.
Additional Resources:
- Paul Scahrre, Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Norton, 2023
- Paul Scharre, Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War. Norton, 2019.
- ChinaTalk (podcast)
- Epoch AI - Quarterly trend reports and other research reports
- Anthropic - Frontier AI Safety
- Matthew Sadler and Natasha Regan, Game Changer: AlphaZero's Ground Breaking Chess Strategy and the Promise of AI, 2019
- US State Department Statement on Responsiblee Use of Military AI, 16 Feb 23
In today’s episode we are continuing our holiday season special on entertainment and IHL. Dr Lauren Sanders is speaking again with Professor Shiri Krebs, but this time about targeting and the movies. In particular they are talking about her paper, Drone-Cinema, Data Practices, and the Narrative of IHL, and how representations of the use of drones in movies (such as the 2015 movie, 'Eye in the Sky'), gets IHL wrong, and how it is being used (or misused) to educate people about ethical decision making in armed conflict and how IHL applies in targeting decisions. Spoiler alert: contains plot details of 'Eye in the Sky'.
Professor Krebs draws upon Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) and post-humanist feminism literature to critically evaluate how drone visuals shape and influence military practices; using popular culture products, such as drone cinema, to critique military processes of knowledge production and the Western-militarist ethos of objectivity.
Shiri is a Professor at Deakin University’s Law Faculty, as well as the Co-lead of the Law and Policy Theme in the Australian Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre (CSCRC). In 2022 she was elected as the Lieber Society on the Laws of Armed Conflict Chair (with the American Society of International Law), and she is an affiliated scholar at Stanford University’s Centre for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). Professor Krebs has written and published broadly on algorithmic bias and drone data vulnerabilities, data privacy, and human-machine interaction in technology-assisted legal decision-making, at the intersection of law, science and technology. She teaches the outcomes of her work in many fora – including to governments and militaries.
Special thanks to Rosie Cavdarski for editing.
Additional resources:
- Shiri Krebs,'Drone-Cinema, Data Practices, and the Narrative of IHL’ , Zeitschrift fur Auslandisches Offentliches Recht und Volkerrecht, Vol 82, 2022
- Shiri Krebs, ‘Law Wars: Experimental Data on the Impact of Legal Labels on Wartime Event Beliefs’, (2020) 11 Harvard National Security Journal 106
- Shiri Krebs, ‘Predictive Technologies and Opaque Epistemology in Counter-Terrorism Decision-Making' in 9/11 and the Rise of Global Anti-Terrorism Law (K. L. Scheppele and A. Vedaschi, eds.
- Donna Harraway, 'Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective', Feminist Studies, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Autumn, 1988).
In this episode of our IHL and entertainment series, Dr Lauren Sanders speaks with Dr Shannon Zimmerman about Dr Who and his crimes of genocide.
Talking about the examples of genocide by Dr Who throughout the series, this interview discussed Dr Zimmerman's paper, 'Doctor Who and the Responsibility to Protect: Public Perspectives of Atrocity Crimes', which canvasses the depiction of genocide in this science fiction series, and how the language and treatment of this international crime in the TV show changes along with real-life events over the course of the series' history; and the use of science fiction as thought experiments in the study of political science.
Dr Zimmerman is a Lecturer in Strategic Studies at Deakin University at the Australian War College and Research Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect at UQ. Her research focuses on norm implementation in United Nations peacekeeping missions, specifically Protection of Civilians (PoC) and counter terrorism in peacekeeping operations. She also studies misogyny motivated terrorism, land the emergency of the involuntary celibates or 'incels'. Shannon received her PhD from the University of Queensland in 2019 and her Masters in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University in 2012.
Special thanks to Rosie Cavdarski for editing.
Additional resources:
- Zimmerman, S, 'Doctor Who and the Responsibility to Protect: Public Perspectives of Atrocity Crimes', The Journal of Popular Culture, 6 Nov 2022.
- To Boldly Go: Leadership, Strategy and Conflict in the 21st Century, Casemate Publishers, Sep 2021.
- Shepherd, L and Clapman, W, 'Lessons from Westerose: Gender and power in Game of Thrones', Politics, Vol 3, Iss 1, 2017.
- Drezner, D, Theories of International Politics and Zombies, Princeton University Press 2014.
- Australian Red Cross, Who is Game of Thrones' worst war criminal?
Dr Lauren Sanders speaks to one of our regular contributors to the podcast, Professor Dale Stephens and combines two of his specialised areas of expertise: space law and international humanitarian law. How might this be possible you might ask? Well, as part of our special holiday series episodes, we are going to turn our minds to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, and talk about war crimes committed in Star Wars.
Take the Australian Red Cross Star Wars Quiz here!
Additional Resources:
- Woomera Manual on the International Law of Military Space Activities and Operations
In this episode of our special entertainment and the law series, Law and Future of War Senior Research Fellow, Dr Eve Massingham discusses the obligation to ensure respect with IHL with her colleague Dr Lauren Sanders. Eve talks about her recent papers detailing how governments should wield their influence over the entertainment industry for good: and to enhance understanding and respect for IHL.
Additional resources:
- Massingham, Eve (2021). Entertainment and the laws of war: The role of States in their interactions with the entertainment industry in order to ensure respect for international humanitarian law. Media and Arts Law Review, 24, 130-147.
- Massingham, Eve and McConnachie, Annabel eds. (2020). Ensuring Respect for International Humanitarian Law (London, United Kingdom: Routledge), particularly chapters 3 and 5 bySarah McCosker and Catherine Drummond respectively.
- Massinghman, Eve. (2022) Hollywood and the Laws of War, Articles of War Blog, The Lieber Institute, Westpoint.
- Theaters of War (May 5, 2022).
- Law and Future of War Podcast, Theatres of War - Seb Kemph (Dec 2022)
- Dale Stephens, ‘International Humanitarian Law in a galaxy far, far away’ (Australian Red Cross).
- Shiri Krebs, ‘The Effects of Visual Evidence on the Application of International Humanitarian Law: A behavioural approach’ (2021).
This is the first episode in our special series on entertainment and the law of war.
In this episode, Dr Sebastian Kaempf, a Senior Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies, joins Dr Lauren Sanders to discuss. his documentary: and the documents he's uncovered from the US CIA and military Entertainment Liaison Offices as part of this project.
Dr Sebastian Kaempf is a Senior Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies at the School of Political Science and International Studies, at the University of Queensland. Sebastian received his PhD at Aberystwyth University in the UK, at the Department of International Politics. He also holds a BSc and MSc (Econ) in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Among his awards is the ISA Deborah Gerner Award for Teaching Innovation in 2020. His work at UQ includes producing and convening 'MediaWarX', one of UQ's Massive Open Online Courses.
Sebastian also hosts a podcast with his colleague Associate Professor Al Stark, where they interview some of the best teachers about their practical advice on engaging university students in the classroom. You can listen to 'Higher Ed Heroes' here on Buzzsprout.
Additional Resources:
- ‘Theaters of War: How the Pentagon and CIA took Hollywood’ is a feature-length film documentary, produced and directed by Roger Stahl, Tom Secker, Matthew Alford and Sebastian Kaempf, funded and released through the Media Education Foundation in May 2022.
- Tom Secker and Matthew Alford, ‘New Evidence for the Surprisingly Significant Propaganda Role of the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense in the Screen Entertainment Industry’ (2019) 45(3) Critical Sociology 347.
- Tom Secker and Matthew Alford, ‘Why are the Pentagon and the CIA in Hollywood?’ (2017) 76(2) The American Journal of Economics and Sociology 381.
- James Der Derian, Virtuous War: Mapping the Military-industrial-media-entertainment Network(Routledge, 2nd ed, 2009)
In this final episode of our series on accountability in Ukraine, Dr Lauren Sanders speaks with Associate Professor Danielle Ireland-Piper and Dr Melinda Rankin about universal jurisdiction and how it may play a part in the prosecution of war crimes occurring in the Ukraine conflict.
Danielle is an Associate Professor at the ANU National Security College and an Honorary Adjunct Associate Professor at Bond University. She is the author of “Extraterritoriality in East Asia” and “Accountability in Extraterritoriality (both published with Edward Elgar). Danielle’s research is primarily concerned with the intersection between domestic and international law on questions of jurisdiction. She also teaches and researches across a number of disciplines, including national security, space law, laws of armed conflict, human rights, and constitutional law.
Melinda works for a consultancy group and is also Honorary Research Fellow at The University of Queensland where she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. She was and Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Global Constitutionalism, at the Social Science Centre Berlin, WZB. She is the author of De facto International Prosecutors in a Global Era: With My Own Eyes and The Political Life of Mary Kaldor: Ideas and Action in International Relations. Her current research programs include 'Conceptualising De facto International Prosecutors in a Global Era', and ‘The Nuremberg Effect,’ investigating how non-state actors and state legal officials in foreign courts exercising UJ pursue accountability.
Additional resources:Danielle Ireland-Piper:Extraterritoriality in East Asia: Extraterritorial Criminal Jurisdiction in China, Japan, and South Korea , 2021; and Accountability in Extraterritoriality: A Comparative and International Law Perspective , 2017.
Melinda Rankin: De facto International Prosecutors in a Global Era: With My Own Eyes 2022; and The Political Life of Mary Kaldor: Ideas and Action in International Relations.
Máximo Langer, Mackenzie Eason, The Quiet Expansion of Universal Jurisdiction, EJIL, Volume 30, Issue 3, August 2019, Pages 779–817
Alejandro Chehtman, The Philosophical Foundations of Extraterritorial Punishment, OUP
Cedric Ryngaert's work on UJ
Time magazine, War Crimes and Challenges in Ukraine
NYT, Souleymane Guengueng: Send Habre to Belgium For Trial
Open Democracy, Interview with Juan Garcés
EuroJust and the ICC Guidelines
Syria's Disappeared: The Case Against Assad
This is the fifth episode in our series on accountability in Ukraine. Following on from our initial exploration into the Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) world, we delve deeper into the technical details of OSINT and its strategic effects with Tom Bullock, an OSINT analyst.
Tom is a Senior Technical Intelligence Analyst with Atreides, a software development company specializing in big data. Previously, he worked as a Senior Russia and CIS OSINT analyst with Janes, a global agency for open-source defence intelligence. Tom also published with Janes Defence Weekly and Janes Intelligence Review. Tom has been involved in tracking military developments in Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict. Today, he reflects on the issues that he's observed so far.
Additional Resources
- Learn more about the employment of OSINT through the Line of Actual Control and Bellingcat.
This is the fourth episode in our series about accountability in Ukraine. This episode focuses on the collection and collation of information (and potential evidence) using open-source intelligence. As you will hear, OSINT has played a key role in the development of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and in the monitoring of conflict in Myanmar. Today we are speaking with a world expert in the skills required of open source intelligence collection – Benjamin Strick.
Benjamin is adigital investigatorwith a background in law, military and technology, specialising in open source intelligence (OSINT), investigations, influence operations, data and maps. He is known for his contributions to multiple streams of human rights abuse investigations; and accountability projects using his online investigation skills, as well as for generating discussion and sharing those skills to democratise OSINT analysis.
Ben is the Director of Investigations for both the Centre for Information Resilience and the Myanmar Witness Project. He was previously an open source investigator with BBC Africa Eye, is a Bellingcat contributor and a co-founder of Ocelli Project. In 2021 he was awarded Open Source Intelligence Champion of the Year for his investment, commitment and contribution to the field.
To learn more about OSINT and how it works, check out Ben's YouTube channel where he posts free digital research tutorials. You can also learn more about Ben and his work by visiting his website or following him on Twitter. See also the OSINT Combine Academy.
To see the Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map, see:
https://maphub.net/Cen4infoRes/russian-ukraine-monitor
To check if your passwords have been hacked and are online, see: https://haveibeenpwned.com/
OSINT Volunteer projects:
National Child Protection Task Force
Europol Stop Child Abuse - Trace an Object
Episode edited by Rosie Carvdarski.
This episode is the third in a series of podcasts analysing accountability in the current Ukrainian conflict.
In this third episode, we are speaking with Dr Carrie McDougall, from the University of Melbourne, who has been heavily involved in the proposal for the establishment of a Special International Tribunal to facilitate the investigation and prosecution of crimes of aggression committed on the territory of Ukraine.
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, unprecedented support has been lent to efforts to ensure that those responsible for serious international crimes being committed in Ukraine are held to account. But what prospect is there for the prime mover, President Putin, being prosecuted?
Dr Carrie McDougall, formerly a legal specialist at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Legal Adviser at Australia’s Mission to the United Nations, is currently researching and teaching international law at the University of Melbourne. She is an expert on the use of force and international criminal law, in particular the crime of aggression, having been heavily involved in the negotiation of the aggression amendments to the Rome Statute and having authored several works on the crime, including the leading monograph on the subject, The Crime of Aggression under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
**Additional Resources:
General Crime of Aggression Publications:**
- Carrie McDougall, The Crime of Aggression under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (2nd ed, CUP, 2021).
- Claus Kress & Stefan Barriga (eds), The Crime of Aggression: A Commentary (CUP, 2016).
- Carrie McDougall, ‘The Crime of Aggression’ in Pedro Caeiro, Sabine Gless and Valsamis Mitsilegas (eds), The Elgar Encyclopedia of Crime and Criminal Justice.
Special International Tribunal video recordings and key blog posts:
- Chatham House: A Criminal Tribunal for Aggression in Ukraine .
- Chatham House: Aggression Against Ukraine: Holding Russia Accountable.
- Edgehill Int Law: Do We Need a Special Tribunal for Aggression for Ukraine?
- Carrie McDougall, ‘Why Creating A Special Tribunal for Aggression Against Ukraine is the Best Available Option: A Reply to Kevin Jon Heller and Other Critics’, Opinio Juris.
- Kevin Jon Heller, ‘The Best Option: An Extraordinary Ukrainian Chamber for Aggression’, Opinio Juris.
- Alexander Komarov and Oona Hathaway, ‘Ukraine’s Constitutional Constraints: How to Achieve Accountability for the Crime of Aggression', Just Security.
This episode is the second instalment in a series of podcasts analysing accountability in the current Ukrainian conflict.
In this episode we are talking to Rebecca Barber, an expert in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) powers and humanitarian action, to discuss the power of the UNGA and its role in providing accountability for actors in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. This episode also addresses the role of the UNGA in relation to the legitimacy of governments (with particular reference to Myanmar); the role of the UNGA in relation to humanitarian assistance (with reference to Syria); and the responsibility to protect.
Rebecca Barber is a PhD Scholar with the TC Beirne School of Law at the University of Queensland, and a Senior Human Rights Research Fellow with the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and is the recipient of the 2022 Article/Chapter (ECR) Award by the Australian Legal Research Awards. Barber has extensive experience working with international humanitarian NGOs well as multi-sector humanitarian response programs in humanitarian crises around the world. She has also worked as a humanitarian advocacy advisor with Oxfam and Save the Children, and as a lecturer with the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership at Deakin University.
Additional Resources:
- Rebecca Barber, ‘The Powers of the UN General Assembly to Prevent and Respond to Atrocity Crimes: A Guidance Document’ (Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, 29 April 2021)
- Rebecca Barber, ‘Cooperating through the General Assembly to End Serious Breaches of Peremptory Norms’ (2022) 71(1) International and Comparative Law Quarterly 1 :
- Rebecca Barber, ‘An Exploration of the General Assembly’s Troubled Relationship with Unilateral Sanction’ (2021) 70(2) International and Comparative Law Quarterly 343:
- Rebecca Barber, ‘Does International Law Permit the Provision of Humanitarian Assistance Without Host State Consent? Territorial Integrity, Necessity and the Determinative Function of the General Assembly’ (2020) 23 Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law 85.
- Alex Bellamy, ‘The Responsibility to Protect at 15: A Promise Unfulfilled’ (Global Centre for R2P, 21 September 2020). Find other commentaries on the Global Centre’s website.
- Watch ‘A conversation with the UN Special Advisers on the Responsibility to Protect’ (2020) here on the Global Centre’s website.
- Read the Secretary General’s Annual Reports on R2P on the Global Centre’s website. Read the 2009 ‘Report of the Secretary-General: Implementing the Responsibility to Protect’ on the UN and the Rule of Law
This episode starts a series of podcasts analysing accountability in the current Ukrainian conflict.
In this first episode, we are joined by Ana Vrodljak, the UNESCO Chair on International Law and Cultural Heritage, and Professor of Law at UTS, and Mayee Warren – a senior practitioner in the management of international criminal trials - to talk about the challenges presented in collecting and collating evidence of breaches of international law in Ukraine. In particular, we are going to focus on how the law protects objects of special cultural significance, what accountability measures exist when those objects are damaged in armed conflict, and then talk about how technology can assist in bringing perpetrators of these crimes to account.
Professor Vrodljak has authored numerous books on International Law and Cultural Objects and Cultural Heritage; as well as the Oxford Commentary on the 1970 UNESCO and 1995 UNIDROIT Conventions. Among her many other appointments, she is a General Editor of the Oxford Commentaries on International Cultural Heritage Law and book series entitled Cultural Heritage Law and Policy; President of the International Cultural Property Society and on the Management Committee, International Journal of Cultural Property.
Mayee Warren has decades of experience as a senior executive in the Office of the Prosecutor of several international judicial mechanisms – from Rwanda, Sierra-Leone. The ICC, the War Crimes Court for Bosnia-Herzegovina, the ECCC – there is barely an international criminal justice mechanism Mayee hasn’t been involved with. She is notionally retired, but is still consulting on legal and judicial projects including Organisational Development Adviser to the Office of the Attorney-General in Somaliland, Organisational Transformation and Change Management Consultant to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions under the joint EU and UN Office on Drugs and Crimes' Criminal Justice Sector Reform program in East Africa and is engaged at UTS with teaching and program management of Global Accountability Projects, as well as providing advise to Ana in her UNESCO role.
Edited by Rosie Cavdarski.
Additional Resources
- Ana Filipa Vrdoljak and Francesco Francioni (eds), The Oxford Handbook of International Cultural Heritage Law(Oxford University Press, 2020).
- Ana Filipa Vrdoljak and Francesco Francioni (eds), Cultural Heritage Law and Policy (Oxford University press, 2013)
- ICC OTP, Lessons Learned Report.
- Read about the ICC OTP’s Policy of Cultural Heritage.
- Learn more about the Mali and Timbuktu prosecutions before the ICC.
- Alexandre Skander Galand, 'A Special Justice Mechanism for the Crime of Aggression Against Ukraine – For Who, By Who, Against Who?' Opinio juris (9 May 2022)
- Generally: International Law Blog
On 25 Aug 2022, the US Department of Defense released its Civilian Harm and Mitigation Response Plan, which has been created, in part as a result of the public scrutiny on civilian casualty incidents following the Iraq campaign.
In this episode, Dr Lauren Sanders speaks with Marc Garlasco, who has been intimately involved with this issue, having been engaged in stakeholder engagement with the US DoD during their development of this plan when it was announced on 27 Jan 2022.
Marc has a long history of observing and reporting on civilian casualty incidents, using his understanding of the process garnered from his time as a a US intelligence analyst. He has served with HRW, as a senior civilian protection officer for United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA); and as the U.N. senior military advisor for the Human Rights Council's (HRC) Independent Commission of Inquiry on Libya, where he investigated civilian casualties while leading a survey of NATO's activities in Libya. He has worked with CNA on civilian harm mitigation, and co-hosts his own podcast, Civilian Protection with CIVIC.
He has been engaged in this Action Plan through his work with the NGO PAX since 2021 and will be talking to us today about the history of this Action Plan and his views on what it might do to address the causal issues identified across the numerous projects that have been analysing the contributing factors that result in civilian casualties.
Edited by Rosie Cavdarski.
Additional Resources
- Marco Garlasco, ‘Defense Department Finally Prioritizes Civilians in Conflict,’ Lawfare Blog (29 August 2022)
- Dan E. Stigall, Anna Williams, ‘An Improved Approach to Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response’ Articles of War Blog (Lieber Institute, Westpoint) (25 August 2022)
- RAND, U.S. Department of Defense Civilian Casualty Policies and Procedures An Independent Assessment (2022)
- See CivIC’s Report ‘In Search of Answers: U.S. Military Investigations and Civilian Harm’ (2020) and other publications on their website.
- Listen to 'The Civilian Protection Podcast' - PAX
- Applying the DoD Policy on Civilian Harm to Protection of Civilians in Large-Scale Combat Operations (LSCO) , NGO Recommendations for DoD Policy on Civilian Harm - InterAction
In this episode, Dr Lauren Sanders speaks with Professor Christiane Wilke about the problem with accountability following civilian casualty incidents, and the impact of cultural and racial frames in imagining what has occurred on the ground.
Professor Christiane Wilke is an Associate Professor in the Department of Law and Legal Studies at Carleton University, Canada. She researches how Western militaries and human rights organizations produce knowledge about and legal analyses of armed conflicts, looking at the recent conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.
In particular, she works with visual and cultural assessments of civilian casualties from airstrikes and how their assessments are shaped by imperial imaginaries about race and space. Drawing on Third World Approaches to International Law and critical law & technology scholarship, she ask how international law understands, regulates, and privileges technologically enhanced warfare.Additional resources:
Christiane Wilke and Mohd Khalid Naseemi, ‘Counting Conflict: Quantifying Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan,’ Forthcoming in: Humanity Journal (Summer 2022).
* Christiane Wilke, ‘The Optics of War: Seeing Civilians, Enacting Distinctions, and Visual Crises in International Law’ in Sheryl Hamilton et al (eds), Sensing Law* (Routledge, 2017).
* Learn more about Azmat Khan’s work at her website and read her Pulitzer Prize winning report on The Civilian Casualty Files in The New York Times.
* Learn more about Air Wars on their website.
* Learn more about Pax for Peace on their website.
* Learn more about CIVIC on their website.
* Learn more about the members of Wilke’s civilian casualty collective: Thomas Gregory, Helen Kisella, Craig Jones and Nisha Shah.
In this episode Dr Lauren Sanders speaks with Associate Profess Shiri Krebs about cognitive biases inherent in targeting operations and what that means for compliance with the laws of armed conflict.
The increased reliance on intelligence feeds from various remote sensors, and the fusion of these sensor feeds to make targeting decisions provides opportunity to entrench cultural and cognitive biases in armed conflict. Equally, the labels and interpretations ascribed to these sensor feeds impact the after action reviews, or fact finding or investigative processes that follow an engagement that results in civilian casualties. There have been many studies undertaken that demonstrate that data coming from machines is changes when it is interpreted by humans, and interpreted from that human’s cognitive and cultural frame, but what is the impact of this kind of bias in the context of targeting operations and compliance with LOAC?
Shiri is an Associate Professor Deakin University’s Law Faculty, where she is also the Co-lead of the Law and Policy Theme in the Australian Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre. She holds the Lieber Society Laws of Armed Conflict Chair (with the American Society of International Law), and she is an affiliated scholar at Stanford University’s Centre for International Security and cooperation (CISAC). Associate Professor Krebs has written and published broadly on algorithmic bias and drone data vulnerabilities, data privacy, and human-machine interaction in technology-assisted legal decision-making, at the intersection of law, science and technology. She teaches the outcomes of her work in many fora – including to governments and militaries; and her paper, “The Effects of Visual Evidence on the Application of International Humanitarian Law: A behavioural approach”, was awarded the 2021 David D. Caron Prize, awarded by the American Society of International Law.
Special thanks to Rosie Cavdarski for editing.
Additional resources:
Shiri Krebs - The Effects of Visual Evidence on the Application of International Humanitarian Law: A behavioural approach, 2021 Davd D Caron
Shiri Krebs - The Invisible Frames Affecting Wartime Investigations: Legal Epistemology, Metaphors, and Cognitive Biases. In Bianchi, A and Hirsch, M (ed), International law's invisible frames : social cognition and knowledge production in international legal processes, Oxford University Press, Oxford, Eng., pp.1-19, 2021
Gavin Sullivan - Law, technology and data-driven security: infra-legalities as method assemblage, Journal of Law and Society, 2022
Fleur Johns - Data detection and the redistribution of the sensible in international law, 2017
Donna Haraway - Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Question of Partial Perspective, Feminist Studies, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Autumn, 1988), pp. 575-599.
Harvard Implicit Bias Test: Project Implicit
In this episode Dr Lauren Sanders will be speaking with Dr Marta Bo about her work analysing how individuals can be held to account for the potential misuse of LAWS; and how ICL can be used as a method to regulate the use of LAWS.
Dr Marta Bo is a researcher at the Asser Institute and the Graduate Institute for International and Development studies (Geneva). She is currently researching on criminal responsibility for war crimes committed with autonomous weapon systems (LAWS and War Crimes Project); AI and criminal responsibility; automation biases and mens rea for crimes committed with autonomous or automated systems; disarmament and criminalisation. She has published on international and transnational criminal law, artificial intelligence and criminal responsibility, autonomous weapons. Marta is also associate senior researcher at SIPRI.
Additional Resources:
SIPRI Emerging Military and Security Technologies Research
In this episode, Dr Eve Massingham talks to Fauve Kurnadi of the Australian Red Cross and Dr Jonathon Kolieb of RMIT about how businesses are affected by, and should consider the application of IHL in situations of armed conflict.
Fauve is a Legal Adviser in the International Humanitarian Law Program of Australian Red Cross where she is responsible for the organisation’s engagement with corporate actors and academic circles. Fauve was recently named one of Pro Bono Australia’s Impact Award winners for her work in ensuring Australian businesses understand their responsibilities under the laws of war and play their part in creating better humanitarian outcomes for communities experiencing war.
Dr Jonathan Kolieb is Senior Lecturer in Law at RMIT University, where he is the Peace and Conflict Theme Lead at RMIT’s Business and Human Rights Centre. Jonathan’s research and teaching interests focus on global governance issues, including projects on the legal protections of children in armed conflict and the human rights obligations of transnational corporations, in particular in conflict-affected areas. Jonathan is the academic advisory member on the Victorian ARC IHL Committee.
Additional resources:
- Jonathan Kolieb (2020) Don’t forget the Geneva Conventions: achieving responsible business conduct in conflict-affected areas through adherence to international humanitarian law, Australian Journal of Human Rights, 26:1, 142-164.
- Red Cross,War, law and business: a module on international humanitarian law for future business leaders, 2022.
- Red Cross, Seven indicators of corporate best practice in international humanitarian law, 2021
- Red Cross, Doing Responsible Business in Armed Conflict: Risks, Rights and Responsibilities
In this episode, Damian Copeland interviews Professor Simon Chestermann about his new book, We the Robots: Regulating Artificial Intelligence and the Limits of War. They discuss what challenges exist in regulating autonomous weapons systems, as well as how states are currently approaching this problem.
Professor Simon Chesterman is Dean and Provost’s Chair Professor of the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law and Senior Director of AI Governance at AI Singapore. He is also Editor of the Asian Journal of International Law and Co-President of the Law Schools Global League.
Professor Chesterman is the author or editor of twenty-one books, including We, the Robots? Regulating Artificial Intelligence and the Limits of the Law (CUP, 2021); Law and Practice of the United Nations (with Ian Johnstone and David M. Malone, OUP, 2016); One Nation Under Surveillance (OUP, 2011); You, the People (OUP, 2004); and Just War or Just Peace? (OUP, 2001). He is a recognized authority on international law, whose work has opened up new areas of research on conceptions of public authority – including the rules and institutions of global governance, state-building and post-conflict reconstruction, the changing role of intelligence agencies, and the emerging role of artificial intelligence and big data.
Additional Resources:
Simon Chestermann: We the Robots? 2022
Hitoshi Nasu: Autonomous weapons and the law
Kobi Liens: International Law Applicable to the Use of Nanotechnologies, 2022
In this episode, Dr Lauren Sanders speaks with Dustin Lewis, of Harvard Law School's Project on International Law and Armed Conflict about war algorithms and his recent project on pathways for using AI, and how to ensure greater respect for international law when states use these algorithmic capabilities.
Dustin is the Research Director at the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC). With a focus on public international law sources and methods, Dustin leads research into several wide-ranging contemporary challenges related to securing peace, protecting civilians, regulating hostilities, safeguarding the environment, and ending armed conflicts.
Additional Resources:
PILAC - Three Pathways to Secure Greater Respect for International Law Concerning War Algorithms
SIPRI - Emerging Military and Security Technologies Project
ASSER Institute - Designing International Law and Ethics into Military Artificial Intelligence (DILEMA)
Geneva Institute - Lethal Autonomous Weapons and War Crimes Project
AutoNorms - Weaponised AI, Norms and Order
ICRC Background Papers on LAWS: ICRC Position on Autonomous Weapons
Suchman - Human-Machine Reconfigurations (CUP, 2012)
In this episode, Professor Warwick Bowen explains to us what quantum technology is, and why it will be such a significant step change in the way that technology will operate in the future.
Professor Bowen is a Professor of Physics at UQ’S faculty of Science. He is recognised both nationally and internationally for research at the interface of nanotechnology and quantum science; including nanophotonics, nanomechanics, quantum optomechanics and photonic/quantum sensing. He was an Australian Future Fellow. and leads the Quantum Optics Laboratory at UQ, is Director of the UQ Precision Sensing Initiative, and is a Node Manager of the Australian Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems.
Further references:
BrisScience video - Prof Warwick Bowen: Quantum Sensing: From Gravitational waves to ultra ultra sound
EU Quantum Flagship
McKinsey & Company - Quantum Computing Reports
In this episode, Dr Lauren Sanders speaks to Professor Hitoshi Nasu, from the Lieber Institute at West Point about artificial intelligence and its potential use in targeting operations. Although a well traversed topic, it is one that is not often viewed from the perspective of the benefits of how AI technology can aid in decision-making during military actions. Professor Nasu also talks about the CCW GGE on LAWS and what direction he thinks regulation of autonomous weapons can realistically take.
For detailed analysis of the lawfulness of autonomous drones in recent conflicts, see:
Hitoshi Nasu - Hunter 2-S Swarming Attack Drones: Legal & Ethical Dimensions, Articles of War Blog
Hitoshi Nasu - The Kargu-2 Autonomous Attack Drone: Legal & Ethical Dimensions, Articles of War Blog
International Law Studies Journal
Dr Craig Jones speaks to Dr Lauren Sanders about his book: War Lawyers, to discuss how some militaries provide legal advice during targeting operations. They talk about the history of operations law, & how this advice is dispensed as well as talking about some challenges & issues with this current model of lawyering.
Dr Craig Jones is the author of The War Lawyers & a lecturer in political geography in the School of Geography, Sociology, & Politics at Newcastle University. His research focuses on war and (para)military violence, conflict medicine & forced displacement, the geographies of international law & the contemporary Middle East and North Africa.
The War Lawyers: The United States, Israel and Juridical Warfare examines the involvement of military lawyers in aerial targeting operations carried out by the US military in Iraq & Afghanistan, & the Israeli military in Gaza & the West Bank. It draws on several years of fieldwork & over 50 interviews with US and Israeli military lawyers. It argues that international law has become part of the very fabric of later modern war and that US and Israeli military lawyers play a surprisingly crucial role in planning & executing a wide range of lethal & non-lethal military operations.
Craig also researches access to treatment for the sick and injured in a region where medical & healthcare infrastructures have been destroyed (often deliberately) by military and paramilitary violence. It focuses on three conflicts in the Middle East - Gaza, Syria & Iraq - & traces the systems of casualty evacuation and medical care that have emerged within & across borders in the region.
Additional resources:
Craig Jones - The War Lawyers: The United States, Israel and Juridical Warfare , (November 2020) OUP
US Army - Report of the Department of the Army Review of the Preliminary Investigations into the My Lai Incident (14 Mar 1970)
Samuel Moyne - Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War (July 2021) MacMillan
Azmat Khan, Sarak Almukhtar and Rachel Shorey - The Civilian Casualty Files (18 Dec 2021) The New York Times
Eric Liddick, No Legal Objection, Per Se (21 April 2021) War on the Rocks
Michael Barbaro and Azmat Khan, The Civilian Casualties of America's Air Wars (18 Jan 2022) The New York Time The Daily Podcast
Christiane Wilke - Implicated Violence: Socio-legal Approaches to International Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Law (Forthcoming, Jan 2022) London Review of International Law
Neve Gordon and Nicola Perugini - Human Shields (August 2020) UC Press
Noura Erakat - Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine (2019) Stanford University Press
Boyd Van Dijk - Preparing for War: The Making of the Geneva Conventions (2022) OUP
Samuel Moyne - Digging a Hole: The Legal Theory Podcast&l
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Samuel White about how cyber operations and information warfare are changing national security and the role of the military. They explore how the domestic legal architecture might prevent or enable tasking the military with responding to cyber threats, and what it might mean for the contemporary relevance of the prerogative powers.
Samuel White has served as a Royal Australian Infantry Corps and Australian Army Legal Corps officer. In 2018, he was appointed as Associate to the Honourable Justice Logan of the Federal Court of Australia. He holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Queensland; a Master of Laws (with First Class Honours) from the University of Melbourne; and a Master of War Studies from UNSW, specialising in counter-insurgency and cyber operations. He is currently enrolled concurrently in a Master of Military Law at the ANU, and a PhD at the University of Adelaide, looking at constitutional limitations and enablers for ADF counter interference operations.
Further reading:
- Samuel White, ‘Keeping the Peace of the iRealm’ (2021) 42(1) Adelaide Law Review 101
- Samuel White, Keeping the Peace of the Realm (2021: LexisNexis)
- Dale Stephens, 'Influence Operations and International Law' (2020) 19(4) Journal of Information Warfare 1.
- R v Secretary of State for the Home Department, ex parte Northumbria Police Authority [1987] EWCA Civ 5
- Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (2018: Profile Books)
- Cameron Moore, Crown and Sword: Executive power and the use of force by the Australian Defence Force (2017: ANU Press)
In this episode, Dr Eve Massingham talks with Major Scott Roach of the Canadian Armed Forces about wargaming. They discuss the concept of wargaming and the Canadian Armed Forces’ mission for the Joint Wargaming Experimentation and Simulation section of their Warfare Centre. Combat simulations have grown in complexity over the past twenty years and how software now allows dozens of soldiers and even pilots to be linked together in a virtual world. Major Roach shares some examples of how technology has enabled wargaming to continue in recent times even with the challenges of COVID-19.
Major Roach has been responsible for establishing the wargaming section of the Canadian Joint Warfare Centre (CJWC) since 2018…
Further reading:
- Visualising War on wargaming | PAXsims (wordpress.com)
In this episode, Dr Lauren Sanders speaks with Group Captain Jo Brick about the role of wargaming and technology in professional military education, and how computer games can be used to train military professionals in ethics and law.
Spoiler alert: they talk about Chidi from ‘The Good Place’ and the trolly problem, to highlight how the practical application of ethics is critical to creating good military decision makers. They traverse some of the challenges that technology creates in terms of desensitisation to violence, and the moral and ethical problems faced by people who conduct warfare by distance – such as drone operators - and how training and education can bridge that gap.
Group Captain Brick is a Legal Officer in the Royal Australian Air Force and currently the Chief of Staff at the Australian Defence College, Canberra. In addition to multiple operational deployments, she has previously been appointed as the Legal Advisor to the Chief of the Defence Force, and Legal Advisor to the Chief of Air Force, editor of The Strategy Bridge and The Central Blue, and is a Non-Resident Fellow of the Krulak Center, United States Marine Corps.
Further reading:
- ‘Kill the enemy, and don’t forget to buy milk on the way home – preparing for the ethical challenges of remote operations in ‘Forever Wars’, on The Forge
- Remote Warfare and the Erosion of the Military Profession | Joint Air Power Competence Centre (japcc.org)
- Reaper Force – Inside Britain’s Drone Wars, Peter Lee (Allen & Unwin, 2019)
-
BruteCast podcast: Military Ethics and Wargaming, Krulak Center for Innovation & Future Warfare
This panel, hosted by the UQ School of Political Science and International Studies addresses critical legal, political and international relations issues associated with the Ukraine war.
Russia’s declaration of war on Ukraine marks a watershed and raises significant questions.
Recorded on Tuesday 8 March, this panel canvasses issues relating to the lawfulness of the invasion, IHL and broader IL implications, strategy and politics surrounding the invasion, and the implications for China.
Hosted by Professor Sebastian Kaempf, the panel consists of the following UQ experts:
- Dr Sarah Teitt (POLSIS)
- Professor Chris Reus-Smit (POLSIS)
- Dr Lauren Sanders (TC Beirne School of Law)
- Associate Professor Andrew Phillips (POLSIS)
The video of this event (including Q and A) is available here: https://polsis.uq.edu.au/event/session/7139
See below a similar podcast by Dr Eve Massingham, with The Lowy Institute's Rules Based Audio podcast: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/rules-based-audio-ukraine-and-future-rules-based-order
In this special reproduction of a Macquarie University Centre for Environmental Law (CEL) webinar, Dr Eve Massingham discusses the protection of the natural environment in times of armed conflict in light of the recent Russian invasion into Ukraine.
A video (including q\Q and A) of the session is available on the Macquarie CEL YouTube channel.
Additional resources:
Guidelines on the Protection of the Natural Environment in Armed Conflict (ICRC, 2020)
Ukraine: What's at stake? (Blatnvik School of Governance, Oxford University, 2022)
In this episode, Dr Lauren Sanders speaks to Paul Lushenko, to discuss the broader implications of drone strikes in terms of politics and strategy, moral legitimacy of states’ use of drone warfare, and his new book, Drones and the Global Order, published in December 2021.
Paul is a U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and General Andrew Jackson Goodpaster Scholar at Cornell University, where he is pursuing a PhD in International Relations. After commissioning as a Military Intelligence Officer in 2005 from the United States Military Academy, he studied at The Australian National University as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar and the U.S. Naval War College. He is also a Council on Foreign Relations Term Member and Adjunct Research Lecturer for the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security at Charles Sturt University.Additional resources: Lushenko, Bose, Maley eds - Drone and the Global Order- Implications for Remote Warfare for International Society, published Dec 2021
Lisa Parks et al- Life in the Age of Drone Warfare, published 2017
Sarah Kreps - Drones :What Everyone needs to know, published 2016
Sarah Kreps and John Kagg - Drone Warfare , published 2014
Jodok Troy et al - Transformation of Targeted Killing in International Order, published 2020Journal of Conflict ResolutionJournal of Research & Politics New York Times - Transcript of Obama's Speech on Drone Policy, 2013
In this episode, Professor Ed Santow, speaks to Dr Lauren Sanders about the regulation of facial recognition technology in Australian and the UTS Facial Recognition Model Law Project, that will propose a way to rectify the current gaps in regulation of this technology in Australia that makes it prone to misuse.
Edward Santow is Industry Professor - Responsible Technology at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Ed leads UTS's new initiative on building Australia's capability on ethical artificial intelligence. From 2016-2021, Ed was Australia's Human Rights Commissioner; he is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Human Rights and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and serves on a number of boards and committees. In 2009, Ed was presented with an Australian Leadership Award, and in 2017, he was recognised as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Ed previously served as chief executive of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and was a Senior Lecturer at UNSW Law School, a research director at the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law and a solicitor in private practice.
Additional resources:
- Australian Human Rights Commission - Human Rights and Technology Report, Chapter 9: Biometric surveillance, facial recognition and privacy, published 2021
- Kate Crawford - The Atlas of AI, published 2021
- The Biometrics Institute
- Shoshanna Zuboff - The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, published 2019
- Virginia Eubanks - Automating Inequality, published 2018
- OAIC - Clearview AI breached Australians' privacy, 3 November 2021
- OAIC - OIAC Finds Against 7-eleven over Facial Recognition, 14 October 2021
In this episode, Dr Lauren Sanders interviews Professor John Blaxland – one of Australia’s most renowned military strategy writers and historians – to talk about the current geopolitical landscape as it applies to Australia, reflecting on the trends from our recent past; and talk briefly about how drones and associated technologies may impact the future global order. They canvas a geostrategic SWOT analysis for 2022; drones and the global order; the tasks that the ADF may face in light of the current geopolitical landscape; and consider how to balance increasing task pressures upon the ADF.
Professor Blaxland is a Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies and former Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University, and has extensively intelligence experience in operations and in strategic settings as an ADF military intelligence officer; and as an academic and historian. His long list of written works include as the principle author of ASIO’s official history, and recently, on US-Thai relations, and Australia’s contributions to the Korean, Afghanistan and Iraq wars, as well as contributing to the 2021 book, Drones and Global Order. John is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales, a member of the Australian Army Journal editorial board, and the first Australian recipient of a US Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative grant.
Additional resources:
- Drones and the Global Order: Implications of Remote Warfare for International Society (Routledge, 2021);
- The US-Thai Alliance and Asian International Relations: History, Memory and Future Developments (Routledge, 2021);
- Niche Wars: Australia in Afghanistan and Iraq, 2001 to 2014 (ANU Press, 2020);
- In from the Cold: Reflections on Australia's Korean War, 1950-1953 (ANU Press, 2020);
- A Geostrategic SWOT Analysis for Australia (SDSC, 2019).
In this episode, Dr Lauren Sanders talks with Damian Copeland about one of the most important legal issues raised by autonomous weapons: how states might carry out weapons reviews of these technologies. The application of this obligation to autonomous weapons will have several challenges. Where a device has the capacity for self-learning, will one single review suffice? Will States be able to take on trust reviews carried out by weapons developers?
Damian Copeland is a part-time Senior Research Fellow with the UQ Law and Future of War Project. He is also a serving member of the Australian Defence Force and a Director at International Weapons Review, an Incorporated Legal Practice specialising in the legal review of new technology weapons.
Further reading:
ICRC - A Guide to the Review of New Weapons, Methods and Means of Warfare, updated 2020
Tim McFarland - The status of autonomous weapon systems under international humanitarian law, published 2017
Natalia Jevglevskaja - International Law and Weapons Review, published 22 Jan 2022
Dustin Lewis - Legal reviews of weapons, means and methods of warfare involving artificial intelligence: 16 elements to consider, published 21 Mar 2019
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie speaks with Rohan Talbot about the legal regulation of facial recognition technology during occupations. In 2019, it was revealed that Israel had added facial recognition technologies to the ways that it administers and controls the occupied Palestinian territories. They discuss the international legal implications of these technologies in occupied territories for security and what might it mean to automate an occupation.
Rohan Talbot is a researcher and advocate based in London. He currently works for a humanitarian and development charity that operates across the occupied Palestinian territory and Palestinian refugee communities in Lebanon. He recently completed a Masters degree in International Human Rights Law at Oxford University, where his research focused on the human rights implications of the use of advanced surveillance technologies in occupied territory.
Further reading:
- Rohan Talbot, 'Automating occupation: International humanitarian and human rights law implications of the deployment of facial recognition technologies in the occupied Palestinian territory' (2021) 102 International Review of the Red Cross 823.
- Kelly A. Gates, Our Biometric Future: Facial Recognition Technology and the Culture of Surveillance(2011: NYU Press).
- Elizabeth Dwoskin, 'Israel escalates surveillance of Palestinians with facial recognition program in West Bank' Washington Post (8 November 2021).
- Olivia Solon, 'Why did Microsoft fund an Israeli firm that surveils West Bank Palestinians?', NBC News (28 October 2019)
- 7amleh, 'Position Paper: Facial Recognition Technology & Palestinian Digital Rights' (21 May 2020).
- Sophia Goodfriend, 'The Expansion of Digital Surveillance in Jerusalem and Impact on Palestinians Rights' (7amleh, 2021)
- Amnesty’s ‘Ban the Scan’ campaign
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Dr Tristan Moss about history of Australia in Space. They discuss the history of Australia in space, starting with its beginnings in a rocket range in Woomera in the 1960s to the recent founding of the Australian Space Agency. They discuss the patchy approach that Australia has taken to space exploitation, and put it into a broader perspective.
Dr Tristan Moss is a senior lecturer in the Griffith Asia Institute. He is a historian researching Australian space history and the history of the ADF with a focus on its culture and policy. His current research focuses on a history of Australian space activities, 1957 – 2020, and he is also working on a history of sex in the Australian military. He is the author of Guarding the Periphery: The Australian Army in Papua New Guinea, 1951–75 (Cambridge University Press, 2017), and co-editor of Beyond Combat: Australian military activity away from the battlefields (NewSouth Books, 2018). Tristan has worked on the Official History of Australian operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and East Timor at the Australian War Memorial and on the Official History of peacekeeping.
Further reading
- Brett Biddington, 'Is Australia Really Lost in Space?', (2021) 57 Space Policy
- The work of Asif A. Siddiqi
- Desmond Ball, Bill Robinson, Richard Tanter and others, The Pine Gap Project
- Kerrie Dougherty, Australia in Space(2017: ATF Press)
- Peter Morton, Fire Across the Desert (2017: Department of Defence)
In today’s episode, Dr Lauren Sanders talks with Abby Zeith and Michael Talhami of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) about urban warfare. Focussing on the impacts of conflict upon urban populations, they look at some of the issues that have arisen in terms of IHL compliance in and around urban centres as a result of technology. They also speak about the current initiatives being undertaken to mitigate harm to civilians as a result of urban conflict.
Abby Zeith is a Legal Adviser in the ICRC’s Arms and Conduct of Hostilities Unit in Geneva. Her work focuses on urban warfare and the application of the rules governing the conduct of hostilities under international humanitarian law more generally.
Michael Talhami is an Urban Services Advisor in the Water and Habitat at the ICRC. He focuses on urban policy formation that helps guide humanitarian programming in support of helping service providers to ensure operational continuity in service provision (water, wastewater, and energy). Michael was previously the ICRC's Regional Water and Habitat Advisor to the Near and Middle East, and has held consultancies with GIZ and the UNDP in the Middle East, and several international advisory firms, following a career as an environmental engineer.
Further reading:
- ICRC Handbook, Reducing Civilian Harm in Urban Warfare: A Commander’s Handbook, 2021
- ICRC Report, Urban Services During Protracted Armed Conflict, 2015
- World Bank, ICRC and UNICEF Report, Joining Forces to Combat Protracted Crises, 2021
- ICRC Report, I saw my city die: Voices from the front lines of urban conflict in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, 2017
- ICRC Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog, Urban Warfare Special Series, 2020
- ICRC Report, IHL and the Challenges of Contemporary Armed Conflicts, 2019
- To be released: ICRC Report on Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas: A Deadly Choice
- Professor Anthony King, Urban Warfare in the Twenty-First Century, 2021, Wiley & Sons
- ICRC Law and Policy Blog, Engaging with the industry: integrating IHL into new technologies in urban warfare, 2021
Note: For more information on the Safe Schools Declaration and the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict visit here. As at time of podcast publication, 112 States have endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration (vice 111 at time of recording).
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Professor Samuel Moyn about his new book, Humane, which considers some of the consequences of focussing on the laws of fighting wars at the expense of considering when they should be fought. They discuss the 19th-century peace movement, and what some of the legal debates from this time reveal about contemporary conflict and the rise of targeted killing and drone warfare.
Samuel Moyn is Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School and a Professor of History at Yale University. He has written several books in his fields of European intellectual history and human rights history, including The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History (2010), and edited or coedited a number of others. His most recent books are Christian Human Rights (2015), based on Mellon Distinguished Lectures at the University of Pennsylvania in fall 2014, and Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World (2018). His newest book is Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2021). Over the years he has written in venues such as Boston Review, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Dissent, The Nation, The New Republic, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Anna Briers about what visual art can tell us about new digital technologies. The current show at UQ Art Museum – called ‘Don't Be Evil’ – seeks to show us some of the invisible power structures of networked technology, including the implications of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data capitalism.
Anna Briers is the Curator at the UQ Art Museum. She has curated in both an institutional and freelance capacity for over a decade in various contexts ranging from art museums and arts festivals, through to underground tunnels and golden canola fields. She holds a Masters of Art Curatorship from the University of Melbourne, a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Elam) from the University of Auckland.
Further reading:
- UQ Art Museum, Conflict in My Outlook_We Met Online
- Safiya Noble, Algorithms of oppression: how search engines reinforce racism (2018: New York University Press)
- Timnit Gebru, 'Race and Gender' in Markus D. Dubber, Frank Pasquale, and Sunit Das (ed) in The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of AI (2020: Oxford University Press)
- Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler, The Anatomy of an AI System(2018)
- Simon Denny, Extractor(2019)
- Sean Dockray, Learning from YouTube(2018)
- Forensic Architecture, Model Zoo (2020)
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie chats with Cris van Eijk about space law – including some of its fundamental documents and places of political contestation - and what the structure and focus of space law tells us about international law more generally. After a few decades on the outer, space law is back in vogue: the rise of commercial space ventures combined with an uptick in geopolitical tension about the use of space makes it particularly important for us to think about if and how it is regulated by law.
Cris van Eijk is an international lawyer and is currently researching outer space law from environmental, historical, and decolonial perspectives. He is currently part of the Working Group on International Law of the International Astronomical Union's Dark and Quiet Skies Conference, as well as Legal Advisor at Jus Ad Astra, where he analyses environmental rights in orbit. He holds a BA in International Justice and an LLM in Public International Law from Leiden University and is in the final stages of a graduate-entry law degree at the University of Cambridge.
Further reading:
- Cris van Eijk, ‘Unstealing the Sky: Third World Equity in the Orbital Commons’
- ‘Sorry, Elon: Mars Is Not a Legal Vacuum – and It’s Not Yours, Either’
- ‘International Lawyers, Look to the Heavens – Before We Lose Them’
- Cris van Eijk and Timiebi Aganaba-Jeanty, ‘Inspired by Africa: A New Approach to Global Space Governance’
- Cassandra Steer and Matthew Hersch (eds), War and Peace in Outer Space: Law, Policy, and Ethics
- Joshua Fitzmaurice and Stacey Henderson, ‘On the Legality of Mars Colonisation’
- Surabhi Ranganathan, ‘Ocean Floor Grab: International Law and the Making of an Extractive Imaginary’
- Surabhi Ranganathan, ‘The Common Heritage of Mankind: Annotations on a Battle’,
- Cair Storr, 'Space Is the Only Way to Go: On the Evolution of the Extractivist Imaginary of International Law’,
- Elena Cirkovic, ‘The Next Generation of International Law: Space, Ice, and the Cosmolegal Proposal’
- Natalie Treviño, ‘The Cosmos Is Not Finished’ (PhD, Western University 2020)
- Timiebi Aganaba-Jeanty, ‘Space Sustainability and the Freedom of Outer Space’
- Fabio Tronchetti, ‘Legal Aspects of the Military Uses of Outer Space’, Handbook of Space Law
- Tanja Masson-Zwaan and Mahulena Hofmann, Introduction to Space Law
In this live recording of an event, Rain Liivoja talks with David Nicholls, Matt McDonald and Monique Cormier about the new AUKUS arrangement, under which Australia would acquire 8 nuclear-powered submarines with US and UK technology. They discuss the extent to which it represents a major shift in Australia's defence policy, and what we can make of some of the claims made about it.
David Nicholls is the Executive Director of the Submarine Institute of Australia. A former submarine commander in the Royal Australian Navy, he now works as a defence industry consultant.
Dr Matt McDonald is an Associate Professor in The University of Queensland's School of Political Science and International Studies. His research focuses on critical theoretical approaches to security and their application to issues such as Australian foreign and security policy, and Asia-Pacific security dynamics.
Dr Monique Cormier is a Senior Lecturer in the University of New England's School of Law. Her research covers international criminal law, and legal issues relating to nuclear disarmament and extended nuclear deterrence.
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Dr Eve Massingham about the equirement to take precautions against the effects of attack. This obligation requires the defender to minimise the risk that civilians and civilian objects will be harmed by enemy military operations – such as by locating military bases away from civilian areas, or by clearly marking non-military objects. They discuss how this might work when it comes to digital infrastructure, including the challenges of dual-use technology, and the value of applying IHL principles to new technology.
Dr Eve Massingham is a Senior Research Fellow with the School of Law, The University of Queensland. Eve's current research focuses on the diverse ways in which the law constrains or enables autonomous functions of military platforms, systems and weapons. She is the co-editor of Ensuring Respect for International Humanitarian Law (Routledge, 2020) and she has published a number of book chapters and journal articles in the fields of international humanitarian law and international law, and the use of force.
Further reading:
- ICRC resources on war in cities
- Erik Jensen, 'War in cities: Attackers have rules to follow. What about defenders?', Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog ( 16 March 2017)
- Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog series on avoiding civilian harm during cyber operations
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Dr Lauren Sanders about the practical application of one of the most interesting legal obligations of international humanitarian law: the obligation to take precautions in attack. This obligation requires attackers to take “all feasible precautions” to minimise incidental loss and harm to civilian life – but what it means in practice can be hard to understand. When is a precaution feasible? How does this obligation sit alongside the permissive character of military necessity?
Dr Lauren Sanders is a Senior Research Fellow at the UQ School of Law, and she researches the legal constraints on the arms trade in military technology, as well as international criminal law, IHL, and counter-terrorism law. Before returning to UQ, Lauren spent twenty years as an Australian Army signals officer and legal officer, and has served in Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor and on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, and has been a legal advisor to ADF domestic counter-terrorism operations.
She is appearing on the show in her personal capacity, and the views she expresses do not reflect the official positions of the Australian Defence Force or Department of Defence.
Further reading:
- Laurent Gisel, Ken Hume, Pilar Gimeno Sarciada and Abby Zeith, 'Urban warfare: an age-old problem in need to new solutions', Humanitarian Law & Policy (27 April 2021).
- The Modern War Institute at West Point
- Michael Schmitt, 'Targeting Dual-Use Structures: An Alternative Interpretation', Articles of War (28 June 2021)
- Joshua Andresen, 'The Paradox of Precision and the Weapons Review Regime' (10 March 2019)
- Airwars
In this episode, Dr Lauren Sanders talks with Dr Joshua Andresen about drones and aerial strikes, exploring whether they make armed conflict safer for civilians. Some claim that by allowing for the more precise use of force, drone strikes cause less harm to nearby civilian populations. Conversely, some point to the impact that making force more accessible in urban areas actually increases the likelihood that force will be used in and around civilians. Lauren and Joshua also consider whether IHL needs to adapt for the use of these technologies.
Dr Joshua Andresen is a Reader in National Security and Foreign Relations Law at the University of Surrey who has written extensively on the problems posed by the use of drone strikes in armed conflict and their regulation. His research focuses on the legal regulation of armed conflict in light of advanced weapons technology and the predominance of non-international armed conflicts.
He has held positions as a senior policy advisor in the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, an attorney-adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State, and has worked at the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as well as Associate Professor of Philosophy at the American University of Beirut.
Further reading:
- Joshua Andresen ‘Putting Lethal Force on the Table: How Drones Change the Alternative Space of War and Counterterrorism’ (2017) 8(2) Harvard National Security Journal 426-472.
- Joshua Andresen, ‘Due Process of War in the Age of Drones’, (2016) 41(1) Yale Journal of International Law 155-188.
- Joshua Andresen 'The Paradox of Precision and the Weapons Review Regime', The Philosophical Journal of Conflict and Violence (2020).
- John E. Jackson (ed) One Nation under Drones: Legality, Morality, and Utility of Unmanned Combat Systems (2018: Naval Institute Press.)
- Jason Lyall, Bombing to Lose? Airpower, Civilian Casualties, and the Dynamics of Violence in Counterinsurgency Wars(2017).
- Chris Kolenda and Chris Rogers, The Strategic Costs of Civilian Harm: Applying Lessons from Afghanistan to Current and Future Conflicts, (2016: The Open Society Foundation).
In this episode, Dr Lauren Sanders talks with Professor Ryan Abbott about the legal standards and challenges of integrating artificial intelligence into current legal regimes. They discuss his recent book, The Reasonable Robot, which traverses different areas of law and how they treat AI – whether incentivising or disincentivising technological development in AI – and what his theory of legal neutrality for artificial intelligence in law is and how it could work. They also cover his recent case in the Australian Federal Court dealing with recognition of AI as an inventor in patent applications.
Professor Abbott is a Professor of Law and Health Sciences at the University of Surrey and is highly regarded for his scholarship, teaching, and professional activities. He has published widely on issues associated with law and technology, health law, and intellectual property in leading legal, medical, and scientific books and journals. Professor Abbott has worked as a partner in legal practice, and he has been outside general counsel to life science companies. He has served as a consultant or expert for international organizations, academic institutions and non-profit enterprises including the United Kingdom Parliament, European Commission, World Health Organization and the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Professor Abbott is a licensed physician, attorney, and acupuncturist in the United States, as well as a solicitor advocate in England and Wales and has also worked as an expert witness which has included testifying in U.S. federal court.
Further reading:
- Ryan Abbott, The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law, (2020: Cambridge University Press)
- Alexandra Jones, 'Artificial intelligence can now be recognised as an inventor after historic Australian court decision', ABC News Online (1 August 2021)
- Ryan Calo, A. Michael Froomkin, and Ian Kerr (eds), Robot Law, (2016: Edward Elgar)
- Jacob Turner, Robot Rules - Regulating Artificial Intelligence, (2019: Palgrave)
- Simon Chesterman, We, the Robots?: Regulating Artificial Intelligence and the Limits of the Law, (2021: Cambridge University Press).
In this episode, Dr Eve Massingham talks with Captain Jessie Dumont about the role of automation in space operations and the prospects of autonomous devices in space. They also touch on wargaming in space and some of the legal issues associated with using space for military purposes.
Captain Dumont is a Lecturer in the Department of Physics & Space Science at the Royal Military College of Canada. She recently returned from working at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. She worked as a member of 18 Space Control Squadron as an orbital analyst and maintained the space catalogue of debris and satellites.
This podcast reflects the personal view of Captain Jessie Dumont and does not represent the view of the Government of Canada.
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Dr Thibault Moulin about the international legal regulation of experiments on humans. These experiments test existing frameworks of international law, and they discuss the limits that international humanitarian law and international human rights law places on human enhancement and the experiments that bring them into being.
Dr Thibault Moulin is a Lecturer at the Catholic University of Lyon in France. His research focuses on the regulation of new technologies by international law, in particular cyber-operations and human enhancement. He holds a PhD in Law from the University of Manchester and a French Doctorate from the University of Grenoble-Alpes. He was also a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Further reading
- Thibault Moulin, 'Doctors Playing Gods? The Legal Challenges in Regulating the Experimental Stage of Cybernetic Human Enhancement' (2021) 54(2) Israel Law Review 236.
- Rain Liivoja and Luke Chircop, 'Are Enhanced Warfighters Weapons, Means or Methods of Warfare?' (2018) 94 International Law Studies 161
- Rain Liivoja, 'Being More Than You Can Be: Enhancement of Warfighters and the Law of Armed Conflict' in Matthew Waxman and Thomas W. Oakley (eds), The Future Law of Armed Conflict (The Lieber Studies; Oxford University Press, 2021, Forthcoming)
- Rain Liivoja, 'New Technologies Symposium: Human Enhancement Technologies and the Law in War and Peace', (8 May 2019) Opinio Juris Blog.
- Heather Harrison Dinniss and Jann Kleffner, 'Soldier 2.0: Military Human Enhancement and International Law' (2016) 92 International Law Studies 432.
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Maaike Verbruggen about how history can help us grapple with new military technologies. They talk about developments in AI, human-machine teaming and swarming capabilities and try to work through what can be taken from the histories of arms control and technology to help us understand our current situation.
Maaike Verbruggen is a historian & sociologist, who now works on the politics of future technology. She is currently a doctoral researcher at the Center for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy at the Brussels School of Governance at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her PhD thesis is on the drivers for and obstacles to military innovation in artificial intelligence, and she has broader interests in arms control, military innovation and emerging technologies. She previously worked at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on autonomous weapons and export controls.
Further reading:
- Technical scientific literature (she tells us not to be intimidated!)
- Donald Mackenzie, Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance(1990: The MIT Press)
- David Edgerton, The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900(2007: OUP)
- Maaike's Twitter thread of recommendations.
In this episode, Dr Eve Massingham talks with Professor Dale Stephens CSM about law and war in outer space. They discuss the legal regime for outer space, what it says about military activities and how developments in technology are impacting these. They specifically discuss autonomy in space – both in relation to weapons and other activities such as the extraction of space debris, consider the legal liability regime for launching objects into space and contemplate the challenges of infrastructure in space serving both military and civilian purposes.
Dr Dale Stephens is a Professor at Adelaide Law School and a Captain in the Royal Australian Navy Reserve who spent over 20 years as a permanent officer in the Royal Australian Navy. Dale’s legal and military career has seen him work on a range of military law and international law topics, as well as see operational military service in East Timor and Iraq. Dale is an Editor and Board Member of the forthcoming Woomera Manual of International Law of Military Space Operations and is widely published on the topic of space law.
Further reading:
- Dale Stephens, 'Law and War in Outer Space' (2018) 40(2) Law Society of SA Bulletin 32
- Dale Stephens (with Cassandra Steer), 'Conflicts in Space: International Humanitarian Law and its Application to Space Warfare' (2015) Vol XL Annals of Air and Space Law 71.
- Dale Stephens, 'The International Legal Implications of Military Space Operations: Examining the Interplay between International Humanitarian Law and the Outer Space Legal Regime ' (2018) 94 International Legal Studies 75.
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Michael O'Hanlon about forecasting what the future of military technology holds, and the conflicts should we be planning for or trying to avoid. The speed of technological development and digital transformation makes this job harder than ever. They discuss how he thinks out what the future holds – both technologically and strategically – over the next 20 years and how to prepare for it.
Michael O'Hanlon is a senior fellow and director of research in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution. He specializes in U.S. defense strategy, the use of military force, and American national security policy. He has several academic appointments, advisory positions and has written extensively on military technology, future conflicts, and the role of American power in the world.
Further reading:
- Michael E. O'Hanlon, Defense 101: Understanding the Military of Today and Tomorrow(2021)
- Michael E. O'Hanlon, The Art of War in an Age of Peace: U.S. Grand Strategy and Resolute Restraint (2021)
- Michael E. O'Hanlon, The Senkaku Paradox: Risking Great Power War Over Small Stakes(2019)
- Michael E. O'Hanlon, The Future of Land Warfare(2015)
- Michael E. O'Hanlon, Technological Change and the Future of Warfare(2000)
- The books of P. W. Singer
- Bruce G. Blair, The End of Nuclear Warfighting: Moving to a Deterrence-Only Posture(2018)
- Bruce G. Blair, The Logic of Accidental Nuclear War(1993)
- James Stavridis & Elliot Ackerman, 2034: A Novel of the Next World War (2021)
- Stephen Rosen, Winning the Next War: Innovation and the Modern Military(1994)
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie is joined by Professor Rob McLaughlin, Dr Tamsin Paige and Associate Professor Douglas Guilfoyle to talk about the application of the law of armed conflict to submarine cables. These cables carry information crucial for national security. They are an essential part of the link between overseas embassies and their capital, not to mention military bases and operations with their commanders. In fact, there is almost no part of modern life that they do not in some way support. Given their central importance, you might think that the legal categorisation and protection of submarine cables would be clear. But, this is far from the case – if, how and when these cables can be military objectives, and how the principle of proportionality might apply, is unclear.
Professor Rob McLaughlin of ANU researches, publishes, and teaches in the areas of Law of Armed Conflict, Law of the Sea, Maritime Security Law and Maritime Law Enforcement, and Military Law.
Dr Tamsin Paige is a Lecturer with Deakin Law School and consults for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in relation to Maritime Crime. Prior to this, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at UNSW Canberra @ ADFA. Her work is interdisciplinary in nature, using qualitative sociological methods to analyse international law.
Associate Professor Douglas Guilfoyle from UNSW Canberra researches maritime security, the international law of the sea, and international and transnational criminal law. Particular areas of specialism include maritime law-enforcement, the law of naval warfare, international courts and tribunals, and the history of international law.
Further reading:
- A Pearce Higgins, ‘Submarine Cables and International Law’ (1921-1922) 2 British Year Book of International Law 27
- Robert Tucker, ‘The Law of War and Neutrality at Sea’ (1955) 50 International Law Studies 1
- Tara Davenport, 'Submarine Cables, Cybersecurity and International Law: An Intersectional Analysis' (2015) 24 Cath. U. J. L. & Tech.
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Professor Ryan Ko about the prospects and risks of cyber autonomy. Programs and systems are being developed that automate cyber defence, allowing them to self-discover, prove and correct software vulnerabilities at real-time. Some are even capable of doing more than defending, but can also attack other systems in the computer network, all without direct human oversight.
Professor Ryan Ko is Chair and Director of Cyber Security at the University of Queensland and is also Deputy Head of School (External Engagement) at the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering. His research in cyber security focuses on returning control of data to cloud computing users, reducing users' reliance on trusting third-parties and focusses on (1) provenance logging and reconstruction, traceability and (2) privacy-preserving data processing. Along with his academic research, he has advised companies and governments on managing cybersecurity risks.
Further reading
- Ryan Ko, 'Cyber Autonomy: Automating the Hacker', preprint of chapter in Reuben Steff, Joe Burton, Simona R. Soare, Emerging Technologies and International Security: Machines, the State, and War (Routledge, 2020).
- David Brumley, The Cyber Grand Challenge and the Future of Cyber-Autonomy (2018) USENIX, ;login: ,43(2).
- Team Shellphish, Cyber Grand Shellphish.
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Scott Wilkie about the infrastructure of the internet. They discuss how we should think about its physical and software components, and why getting the framing right is key to regulating it. They also address what sort of interventions should be made by Governments, including if and how the military should be involved in cyber defence.
Scott Wilkie is a former investment banker, founder of technology companies and advisor to governments on their cyber-secure capabilities. This has included cyber security governance and risk models, digital transformation, analytics, artificial intelligence, trust in a digital world and cloud computing. He is well known in Australia and across the Five Eyes for leading policy and strategy development for digital sovereignty and security of critical supply chains and infrastructure.
Further reading:
- Australian Cyber Security Centre, The Cyber Security Principles
- The 5 knows of cyber security
- Scott Shackelford, 'The FBI is breaking into corporate computers to remove malicious code – smart cyber defense or government overreach?' The Conversation (26 April 2021)
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
- Shane Harris, @War: The Rise of Cyber Warfare (2014, Hachette)
In this episode, Dr Eve Massingham talks with Dr Simon McKenzie to talk about how some of the fundamental categories of IHL are challenged by cyber operations. In particular, the concepts of ‘objects’ and ‘attacks’, with their apparent focus on physicality, are hard to fit with the intangible elements of cyberspace. They explore this issue by considering whether ‘data’ can be thought of as an object for the purposes of IHL, and why is important.
Simon McKenzie is a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland School of Law. Simon's current research focuses on the legal challenges connected with the defence and security applications of science and technology, with a particular focus on the impact of autonomous systems. His broader research and teaching interests include the law of armed conflict, international criminal law, and domestic criminal law.
Further reading:
- Simon McKenzie, 'Cyber Operations against Civilian Data: Revisiting War Crimes against Protected Objects and Property in the Rome Statute' (2021) Journal of International Criminal Justice
- Jennifer Daskal, ‘The Un-Territoriality of Data’ (2015) 125 Yale Law Journal 326
- Michael Schmitt (ed.), Tallinn Manual 2.0 on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Operations (2nd edn., Cambridge University Press, 2017)
- L. Gisel, T. Rodenhäuser and K. Dörmann, ‘Twenty Years on: International Humanitarian Law and the Protection of Civilians against the Effects of Cyber Operations during Armed Conflict’, September 2020 International Review of the Red Cross
- Michael Schmitt, ‘Wired Warfare 3.0: Protecting the Civilian Population during Cyber Operations’, 101 International Review of the Red Cross (2019) 333
- Kubo Mačák, ‘Military Objectives 2.0: The Case for Interpreting Computer Data as Objects under International Humanitarian Law’, 48 Israel Law Review (2015) 55
- H.A. Harrison Dinniss, ‘The Nature of Objects: Targeting Networks and the Challenge of Defining Cyber Military Objectives’, 48 Israel Law Review (2015) 39
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Associate Professor Emily Crawford about the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques – known as the ENMOD Convention. This Convention – adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1976 and ratified by 78 States – prohibits weaponising the natural environment against other State parties.
However, the technology it regulates – the artificial creation of natural phenomena like earthquakes, cyclones, or tsunamis for hostile purposes – has never been developed or used. This technology is like something out of science fiction. This episode examines how this striking Convention came to be, what the drafters thought it might cover, and why they thought it was a useful new treaty for the law of war.
Emily Crawford is an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney Law School, where she teaches and researches in international law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law. She has published widely in the field of international humanitarian law, including two monographs (The Treatment of Combatants and Insurgents under the Law of Armed Conflict (OUP 2010) and Identifying the Enemy: Civilian Participation in Hostilities(OUP 2015)) and a textbook (International Humanitarian Law (with Alison Pert, 2nd edition, CUP 2020)), and is currently working on her third monograph, on the impact of non-binding instruments in international humanitarian law. She is an associate of the Sydney Centre for International Law at the University of Sydney, and a co-editor of the Journal of International Humanitarian Studies.
Further reading:
- Emily Crawford, 'Accounting for the ENMOD Convention: Cold War Influences on the Origins and Development of the 1976 Convention on Environmental Modification Techniques' in M. Craven, S. Pahuja, & G. Simpson (Eds.), International Law and the Cold War (2019, Cambridge University Press), 81-97.
- James Fleming, Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control (2010, Columbia University Press).
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Julia Sluspka about how the metaphors we use to understand cyberspace impact on how we imagine it should be regulated. They discuss the ways in which the conceptualisation of cyberspace is contested. Is it like spatial territory? Are states engaged in cyber war? Or is it like an ecosystem, or infrastructure? The metaphor we adopt frames the problems we see and the solutions we arrive at.
Julia Slupska is a doctoral student at the Centre for Doctoral Training in Cybersecurity and the Oxford Internet Institute. Her research focuses on technologically-mediated abuse like image-based sexual abuse ('revenge porn') and stalking, as well as emotion, care and metaphors in cybersecurity.
Further reading
- Julia Slupska, 'War, Health and Ecosystem: Generative Metaphors in Cybersecurity Governance', Philosophy & Technology (2020).
- Julia Slupska, 'Safe at Home: Towards a Feminist Critique of Cybersecurity' in Whose Security is Cybersecurity? Authority, Responsibility and Power in Cyberspace (St. Anthony's International Review 2019 no. 15)
- George Lakoff & Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By(1980, University of Chicago Press).
- Dominik Lukeš, 'Hacking a metaphor in five steps', Metaphor Hacker (July 18 2010).
- Florian Eggloff, 'Cybersecurity and the Age of Privateering: A Historical Analogy', Cyber Studies Working Paper No. 1 (March 2015, University of Oxford)
- Donald Schön 'Generative metaphor: A perspective on problem-setting in social policy' in Ortony, A. (Ed.) Metaphor and Thought (1993, 2nd ed, Cambridge University Press).
- Mariarosaria Taddeo, 'On the Risks of Relying on Analogies to Understand Cyber Conflicts' (2016) 26 Minds and Machines 317-321.
- Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (2nd ed., 2014, University of California Press).
- Karen Levy and Bruce Schneier, 'Privacy threats in intimate relationships' 6(1) Journal of Cybersecurity (2020).
- Cornell Tech Univerisity Project on Computer Security and Privacy for Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence
- Katherine Miller, James Shires, Tatiana Tropina, Gender Approaches to Cybersecurity(2021, UNIDIR)
In this episode, Dr Eve Massingham talks with Dr Cordula Droege about some of the challenges new technologies pose to international humanitarian law. They discuss nuclear weapons, autonomous weapons systems, cyber operations, and the importance of carrying out weapon reviews. They also consider some of the uses of technology for humanitarian purposes, including the rewards and risks of using biometric data.
Dr Cordula Droege is the chief legal officer and head of the legal division of the ICRC, where she leads the ICRC’s efforts to uphold, implement and develop international humanitarian law. She joined the ICRC in 2005 and has held a number of positions in the field and at headquarter, including as head of the legal advisers to operations, and most recently as chief of staff to the President of the ICRC. She has some twenty years of experience in the field of international law, and in her earlier career worked for the International Commission of Jurists, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Max Planck Institute for International Law. She holds a law degree and a PhD from the University of Heidelberg and an LL.M from the London School of Economics.
Further reading:
- The ICRC's page on New Technologies and IHL
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Dr Samuli Haataja about countermeasures in cyberspace. The right to countermeasures is a mechanism in international law that allows States to take action when they have suffered an international wrong. Some of features of cyberspace challenge this well-established body of rules, and it may need to change to ensure States have an effective remedy to deter foreign cyber attacks.
Samuli researches the public international law aspects of cybersecurity, and his book Cyber Attacks and International Law on the Use of Force: The Turn to Information Ethics was published by Routledge in 2019. He’s also a member of the IEEE Society on Society Implication of Technology.
Further Reading:
- Samuli Haataja, 'Cyber Operations and Collective Countermeasures under International Law' (2020) 25(1) Journal of Conflict and Security Law, 33–51
- Tallinn Manual 2.0 on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Operations
- Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts
- Australia's position on how international law applies to state conduct in cyberspace
- New Zealand - The Application of International Law to State Activity in Cyberspace
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Rhiannon Neilsen and Karine Pontbriand on the role of militaries in defending against cyber operations. They argue that the vulnerability of critical infrastructure of many States to cyber operations - particularly due to privatisation - means that militaries need to step up their contribution to cyber defence. They talk about why NATO militaries are reluctant to do this, the basis for this position, and why it is problematic.
Rhiannon Neilsen is a Scientia PhD Candidate at the University of New South Wales. Her research interests include atrocity prevention, moral and political philosophy, cyberspace, and the Responsibility to Protect. In 2019, she was awarded the Barbara Hale Fellowship by the Australian Federation of Graduate Women to be a visiting doctoral student at the University of Oxford. Rhiannon has also been a visiting scholar at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (2019). Her published work has appeared in international journals, such as Ethics and International Affairs (2020), Terrorism and Political Violence (2019), and Genocide Studies and Prevention (2015).
Karine Pontbriand is a PhD Candidate in International Relations and Cyber Security at UNSW Canberra, and is a member of the Research Group on Cyber War and Peace. She is also a research fellow at the Research Group on Cyber Diplomacy and Cyber Security at the Montreal Institute of International Studies (IEIM). Before starting her doctoral studies, she worked as a policy analyst for Global Affairs Canada where she was focusing on the use of digital technology to advance Canada's foreign policy priorities. She has an undergraduate degree in International Relations and International Law and a master’s degree in International and Intercultural Communication (with Distinction, Highest Grade). Her main research interests are international cyber security, cyber diplomacy and cyber war and US-China cyber relations.
In this episode, Dr Rain Liivoja talks to Professor Michael Schmitt about the Tallinn Manuals on the law applicable to cyber operations. They discuss the impetus for the manuals, their drafting process, some of the main findings and the reception by states and scholars. They also talk about the plans for Tallinn Manual 3.0.
Professor Michael N Schmitt is Professor of International Law at the University of Reading. He is also Senior Fellow at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence; Francis Lieber Distinguished Scholar at West Point’s Lieber Institute; Charles H Stockton Distinguished Scholar at the US Naval War College; Distinguished Scholar at the University of Texas’ Strass Center for International Security and Law; and Director of Legal Affairs for Cyber Law International. He directed the Tallinn Manual project from 2009–2017.
Further reading
- Michael N Schmitt (gen ed), Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare (Cambridge University Press 2013)
- Michael N Schmitt (gen ed), Tallinn Manual 2.0 on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Operations (Cambridge University Press 2017)
- Nicholas Tsagourias and Russell Buchan (eds), Research Handbook on International Law and Cyberspace (Elgar 2015)
- NATO CCDCOE Library
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Dr Natalia Jevglevskaja about the obligation to review new weapons found in Article 36 of Additional Protocol 1 to the Geneva Conventions. They discuss what the weapons review obligation requires, the kinds of technologies it applies to, and the different approaches states take to fulfilling the obligation. They also discuss some of its limitations and the challenges posed by recent developments in machine processing and artificial intelligence.
Dr Natalia Jevglevskaja is a Research Fellow at the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra. Natalia’s research interests include law of armed conflict, human rights law and comparative law. Natalia has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, holds an LL.M in Public International Law from the University of Utrecht (2013), awarded with cum laude to mark outstanding achievement and completed her undergraduate studies in law at the University of Heidelberg (2011).
Suggested further reading:
- International Committee of the Red Cross, ‘A Guide to the Legal Review of New Weapons, Means and Methods of Warfare: Measures to Implement Article 36 of Additional Protocol I of 1977’ (2006) 88 International Review of the Red Cross 931
- Boulanin, Vincent and Maaike Verbruggen, SIPRI Compendium on Article 36 Reviews(December 2017) SIPRI
- The Australian Article 36 Review Process, Group of Governmental Experts of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects, UN Doc CCW/GGE.2/2018/WP.6
In this episode, Dr Eve Massingham talks to Professor Jason Scholz and Associate Professor Simon Ng about the development of new military technology. They talk about the key areas of current investments, how the game is changing, and where the future might take us. They also discuss the recent investments Australia has made into autonomous systems, and explain some of the strategic calculations behind this effort.
Professor Jason Scholz is the CEO of the Trusted Autonomous Systems Defence Cooperative Research Centre. Prior to this role, Jason led research in cognitive psychology, decision aids, decision automation and autonomy, and the integration of human and machine decision-making within the Defence Science and Technology Group. He has over fifty refereed publications and several patents, covering research in telecommunications, digital signal processing, artificial intelligence and human decision making. He is passionate about the potential for machine learning based on neuroscience insights, human cognitive enhancement, anti-fragile organisations and is driven to achieve the transition of validated innovative technology and techniques into Defence.
Associate Professor Simon Ng is the Chief Engineer of the Trusted Autonomous Systems Defence Cooperative Research Centre. Prior to this, he led the Unmanned Aerial Systems Group within Defence Science and Technology Group’s Aerospace Division, exploring the role of autonomy in enhancing Defence capability and reducing risk in an increasingly complex operational environment. He has a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Engineering from Monash University and completed his Doctoral Thesis in 1998, studying mechanisms for ionic conduction in solid polymer electrolytes.
Further reading:
- Paul Scharre, Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War(2018, W.W. Norton and Company).
- David Kilcullen, Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla (2013, Scribe Publishing).
- MacGregor Knox and Williamson Murray, The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300-2050 (2001, Cambridge University Press)
- Stephen Biddle, Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle (2010, Princeton University Press).
- Dave Grossman, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (2009, Back Bay).
- The Philosopher AI App.
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Dr Tim McFarland about autonomy in weapons systems: what it is, why it is important, and how it should be understood for the purpose of the law of armed conflict. They talk about the meaning of 'autonomy', and how the concept is used in the context of weapons systems, and what gets lost in debate about their morality and legality. They also discuss some of the legal principles that are particularly important, including distinction, proportionality and the obligation to take precautions.
Dr Tim McFarland is a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland School of Law. His current research focuses on the legal challenges connected with the defence and security applications of science and technology, with a particular focus on the impact of autonomous systems. His broader research interests include the law of armed conflict and international criminal law. He is the author of Autonomous Weapon Systems and the Law of Armed Conflict (Cambridge University Press, 2020).
For further readings, a basic primer on autonomy and autonomous weapons systems, and links to some further resources, are available on our website.
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie is joined by Dr Eve Massingham and Associate Professor Rain Liivoja to grapple with the findings of the Brereton Report. The report is shocking: it found credible evidence of 39 murders of civilians and prisoners by, or on the instructions of, members of the Australian special forces which were then covered up.
Simon, Eve and Rain talk about the context of the Report and the allegations, and the potential consequences for the individuals who allegedly carried out these acts. They explain what war crimes are and how they differ from domestic crimes, the concept of command responsibility, and what the sentence for any conviction might be. They also how the Australian government might respond to the wrongdoing and ensure the Afghan victims receive justice.
Rain Liivoja is an Associate Professor at The University of Queensland Law School, where he leads the Law and the Future of War research group. Rain also holds the title of Adjunct Professor of International Law at the University of Helsinki, where he is affiliated with the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights.
Eve Massingham is a Senior Research Fellow at The University of Queensland Law School. Eve's current research focuses on the diverse ways in which the law constrains or enables autonomous functions of military platforms, systems and weapons. She is the co-editor of Ensuring Respect for International Humanitarian Law (Routledge, 2020) and she has published a number of book chapters and journal articles in the fields of international humanitarian law and international law and the use of force.
Further reading:
- The Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force Afghanistan Inquiry (The Brereton Report)
- Eve Massingham, 'Australian Special Forces War Crimes Prosecutions: Crucial but Just One Aspect When It Comes to Respect for the Laws of War' Opinio Juris (20 November 2020)
- Douglas Guilfoyle, 'Australian war crimes in Afghanistan: The Brereton Report' EJIL!Talk (23 November 2020)
- David Letts, ‘Allegations of murder and ‘blooding’ in Brereton report now face many obstacles to prosecution’ The Conversation (19 November 2020)
- Matthew Doran, 'Afghanistan war crimes report released by Defence Chief Angus Campbell includes evidence of 39 murders by special forces' ABC Australia (19 November 2020)
- Christopher Knaus and Rory Callinan, ''We expected better from Australia': shock and anger in Afghanistan at war crimes report' The Guardian (20 November 2020)
- Rain Liivoja, Criminal Jurisdiction Over Armed Forces Abroad (Cambridge University Press, 2017)
In this episode Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Dr Anna Hood and Dr Monique Cormier to discuss the attempt to ban the most destructive weapons in the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty. They talk about how the treaty works, who has signed up, and the value of the treaty given that no nuclear weapon states have signed up. They also explore its history, and how it connects to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Australia did not participate in the negotiations for the Nuclear Ban Treaty and has not become a State party. They discuss why the rationale that has been given for this refusal, and explain what is meant by the "nuclear umbrella" and "extended nuclear deterrence," and how it relates to the joint military facility at Pine Gap and the ANZUS treaty.
Dr Anna Hood is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland. Anna is a public international lawyer. She has a BA/LLB (hons) from the University of Melbourne, an LLM (International Legal Studies) from NYU and a PhD from the University of Melbourne. Anna's work focuses primarily on disarmament law, refugee law and issues concering New Zealand and international law. She also has a keen interest in legal education and the role of universities in the 21st century.
Dr Monique Cormier is a Lecturer at the University of New England. Monique has Bachelor of International Studies and Bachelor of Laws (hons) from the University of Adelaide, an LLM from Columbia University, and a PhD from the University of Melbourne. Monique's primary research interests are jurisdiction, defences and immunities in international criminal law and on legal issues relating to nuclear disarmament and extended nuclear deterrence.
Suggested further reading:
- Anna Hood and Monique Cormier, 'Can Australia Join the Nuclear Ban Treaty Without Undermining ANZUS?' (2020) 44(1) Melbourne University Law Review.
- Monique Cormier and Anna Hood, ‘Australia’s Reliance on US Extended Nuclear Deterrence under International Law' (2017) 13 Journal of International Law and International Relations 3
- The Pine Gap Project on the Nautilus Institute
- Stuart Casley-Maslen, The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons: A Commentary (Oxford University Press, 2019)
- Treasa Dunworth and Anna Hood (eds), Disarmament Law: Reviving the Field (Routledge, 2021).
- The research of Richard Tanter
In this episode, Isabelle Peart talks with Dr Eve Massingham about the operation of weapons law in armed conflict. They talk about the definition of a 'weapon', and how international law regulates them in two ways: prohibitions on specific weapons, and general prohibitions covering weapons that have certain effects. They also talk about the role that the idea of 'humanity' plays in the law of war, .
Dr Eve Massingham is a Senior Research Fellow with the School of Law, The University of Queensland. Eve's current research focuses on the diverse ways in which the law constrains or enables autonomous functions of military platforms, systems and weapons. She is the co-editor of Ensuring Respect for International Humanitarian Law (Routledge, 2020) and she has published a number of book chapters and journal articles in the fields of international humanitarian law and international law and the use of force.
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Associate Professor Rain Liivoja on how the law of armed conflict deals with new technology. The conversation includes an overview of how international law regulates war and the role of pragmatism in the development of this law. They discuss some of the key points in the history of the law of armed conflict and some contemporary challenges, including autonomy in weapons, human enhancement and cyber operations.
Rain Liivoja is an Associate Professor at the University of Queensland Law School, where he leads the Law and the Future of War research group. Rain also holds the title of Adjunct Professor of International Law at the University of Helsinki, where he is affiliated with the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights.
Links to further reading:
- Rain Liivoja, 'Technological change and the evolution of the law of war' (2016) 97 International Review of the Red Cross 900, 1157-1177.
- Martin van Creveld, Technology and War: From 2000 B.C. to the Present (1991, Touchstone).
- Max Boot, War Made New: Weapons, Warriors and the Making of the Modern World (2007, Penguin Putnam Inc).