IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2020 - 47

dual_use

88

human_responsibility

121

Code Names

military_advantage

149

network centric warfare
(ncw)
economics

164
167

warfare

175

human_law_principles

205

mil_operating_structure

249

intern_law

349
395

ethics
0

50

100

150

200
250
Frequencies

300

350

400

FIGURE 5. Reflections of relevant discourses.

demanding vocabulary: " All weapons systems must
" predictability " (50%) and " unexpect " (32%), thereby
comply with International Law in general and, in particuindicating that ethical arguments are associated with the
lar, with International Humanitarian Law and with Intervalue of predictability or vice versa. Furthermore, " ethinational Human Rights Law " (WP5-BR, own emp.) and
cal " is associated across the CCW corpus with " disobey "
" [w]e believe that any legal discussion about LAWS should
(50%), " nonacceptable " (50%), and " question " (32%), all
centre on compliance with International Humanitarian
reflecting on the option of intervention regarding deciLaw, including the obligation for all States to ensure the
sion-making (37% " decision " ). At the same time,
lawfulness of their weapons, means and methods of war " ethics " is also associated with the value of suffifare. These should be our constant reference points "
cient time (32% " acute " ).
(GenEx-CA, own emp.).
Associations of " military " did not point to any of the
Besides ethics and law, we identified " economics " (n =
dominantly stated values. Yet, besides references to
167) and the military discourse consisting of military sigweaponry ( " laser-guided, " " microcomputer, " " bomb, "
nifiers ( " mil_operating_structure " n = 249, " warfare " n =
" radar " ) or military vocabulary ( " battlefield, " " subma175) and indicating military logic ( " military_advantage "
rine " ), it is mostly associated with " civilian " (44%), " harm "
n  = 149) to function as structuring forces. While " dual_
(35%), " accuracy " (34%), and " collateral " (33%). These
use " (n = 88) constitutes a sub-code of the economic disword stems point to the humanitarian principle of distinccourse due to its recurring references to R&D in the
tion as well as the technological value of " precision " (or
civilian sector, the code " NCW " (n = 164) is grasping all
" accuracy " ). Both associations of " command " and
phrases related to the so-called network-centric warfare.
" advantage " neither refer to values like " predictability, "
However, the code " NCW " is formed the military dis " reliability, " " time " or " intervention. " Rather, they are also
course, it is also influenced by economics [34], [35].
associated with military vocabulary as well as with relaThus, we categorized thematic reference points by
tively diffuse values like " appropriate " (35%, ~ " suitability " ),
four subjects, forming two interrelated pairs: law and eth " initially defined " (41%), " feasibility " (31% with " advantage " ),
ics as well as military discourse and economics.
These pairs are not only illustrated in the text
Ethics
Law
Military
Economics
documents (see Figure 6), but also inspired by
>
findFreqTerms(dtmr,lowfreq=200)
NCW-literature [34]. When looking at the word
[1] " autonom " " control " " develop " " forc "
" geneva "
stem associations of " law, " we did not find any
" intern "
" law "
" legal "
immediate reference to ethics. Yet, there are
[9] " lethal " " review " " state " " system " " use "
" weapon "
associations with " humanitarian " (50%), " princi " militari " " oper "
ple " (45%), " mean " (31%), and " remind " (34%),
[17] " can "
" target " " technolog " " human " " will "
indicating the cognitive work of ethics. When
" perman "
testing for word associations of " ethics, " it is
revealed that " ethic " is very often used along FIGURE 6. Extract of terms occurring at least 200 times & major discourses.
DECEMBER 2020

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IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2020

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