Conflict, Cohesion, and Comrades in Arms: Social Implications of Robotics in the Military

Abstract

Current thinking about military leadership rests on an historic set of understandings, norms, and values, including ideas like honor, courage, and character. And leadership provides the backbone for military organization. But emerging technological advances will have effects on the ways in which warfighters exercise autonomy and agency at all levels of the military organization. Warfighters will increasingly be called upon to work with robots (including being paired with a robot as a sort of robot–human hybrid), to supervise robots, and perhaps even to take orders from robots. Can traditional military understandings of leadership and character be reconciled with these technological advances or does the paradigm of military leadership require a fundamental rethinking?