Of souls, spirits and ghosts: Transposing the application of the rules of targeting to lethal autonomous robots

TLDR: In this paper, the authors argue that an ability to experience emotions, compassion and connection to citizens of the adversary's state are central to good targeting decisions, and that these qualities enable the soldiers to distinguish civilians from individuals who take a direct part in hostilities.

Abstract: C An Ability to Experience Emotions and Compassion Human Rights Watch ('HRW') (303) and Robert Sparrow (304) argue that an ability to experience emotions, compassion and connection to citizens of the adversary's state are central to good targeting decisions. Similarly, Lieutenant Colonel Jorg Wellbrink believes that feelings, empathy and intuition are vital for understanding the situation on the battlefield. (305) Although the rules of targeting do not directly address the role of emotions and compassion in decision-making, it would be strange if the rules did not assume the decision-makers to have this capacity. The ICJ articulated in the Nuclear Weapons Case that a 'great many' IHL rules are 'fundamental to the respect of the human person' and reflect 'elementary considerations of humanity'. (306) It would be odd if states did not expect the decision-makers, who determine what verification measures to use, whether to use lethal force, what weapons to employ and whether an attack is proportionate, to understand and to experience respect for other human beings. Emotions and empathy allow individuals to have respect for the life and dignity of other persons. Wagner's scenario of boys playing with a ball, (307) which has already been described, lends support to HRW's assertion (308) that the possession of emotions and compassion enables the soldiers to distinguish civilians from individuals who take a direct part in hostilities. In this particular scenario, soldiers will be able to identify with the feelings of fear that a parent who sees children running towards a soldier experiences. This is because they can imagine what it is like to be in their position. Because the man with a dagger in this scenario poses no threat to the soldiers or their colleagues, the soldiers are in a position to abstain from firing at the adversary. Of course, the possession of emotions and compassion may be less relevant to identifying military objectives which have a distinct appearance or signature, such as a tank or another LAR. Nevertheless, since the purpose of the forces is to kill or destroy as many lawful targets as possible, an LAR which could be employed against the whole array of possible targets would need to possess these qualities. Another value of the ability to experience emotions and compassion is that the possession of these qualities lead soldiers to assume a risk of injury when faced with a decision of whether to open fire, in circumstances when they are not sure whether the person is taking a direct part in hostilities or not. The soldiers abstain from firing in such situations because they perceive the death of an individual who does not pose a threat to them as a tragic loss. This sensitivity stems from the ability of the soldiers to identify with the feeling of bereavement which the family and friends of the deceased experience. A counterargument would be that the diaries of soldiers reveal that whilst some soldiers felt pain at the time they killed the enemy, (309) others felt pleasure and the satisfaction of winning. (310) A response to this observation would be that those soldiers who viewed fighting as a thrill took the horrors of war more seriously than civilians who were located far away from the combat zone. (311) These soldiers experienced trauma after combat was over. (312) When soldiers captured prisoners of war, they felt sympathy for those individuals. (313) Moreover, in 2011 the psychologists of the US Air Force completed a mental health survey of 600 drone pilots. (314) They found that 20 per cent of the pilots reported emotional exhaustion or burnout due to seeing death, despite not being physically present on the battlefield. (315) This information suggests that human beings feel compassion for each other, but that this feeling may become displaced when an individual encounters someone who poses mortal danger to him or her. Just because soldiers experience mixed emotions when killing another soldier (316) does not mean that they do not feel compassion for civilians. …