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Abstract

The innovation, adaption, and use of new technologies on the battlefield have a history which precedes even the written record. How to identify the nature of their impact and regulate their use has been an ongoing challenge for centuries. Contemporary innovation, however, may well represent a shift in traditional paradigms, given that innovation is democratized, that is available to anyone with minimal constraints, and flourishes in unregulated spaces. How to describe emerging technologies and their impact on the battlefield is of considerable importance as humankind wrestles with the legal and ethical decisions required to insure that it is not overtaken by, and perhaps destroyed by, technology’s unintended potential.

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© 2014 Richard Michael O’Meara

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O’Meara, R.M. (2014). Introduction: The Nature of the Problem. In: Governing Military Technologies in the 21st Century: Ethics and Operations. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137449177_1

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