Book Review: Israel’s Moment: International Support for and Opposition to Establishing the Jewish State, 1945-1949

Abstract

tices with air defence systems necessarily will apply to AI weapons with offensive capabilities. The normative and ethical implications of autonomous air defence systems, designed to identify overhead threats and strike in response, may differ from those related to AI-powered systems that can identify and engage their targets with limited human involvement. While the air defence systems examined in this book have resulted in human casualties and certainly do inform perceptions of meaningful human control in an era of enhanced weapons autonomy, states and their citizens may feel differently about systems that were deliberately designed for offensive purposes. Thus, it remains unclear whether norms derived from practices with automated defence systems will necessarily apply to the AI-powered weapons systems of the future. Finally, the authors’ claim that international norms regarding the use of AI-powered weapons have already emerged before the full extent of AWS has even been realized may strike some readers as fatalistic. If legalistic, formal norms are fundamentally insufficient and procedural norms have already begun emerging in ways that erode meaningful human control, what can be done to set restrictions on the development and proliferation of these weapons? Ultimately, Bode and Huelss’ Autonomous Weapons Systems and International Norms makes a timely and important contribution to the fields of International Relations and International Security Studies at a time when global interest in AI and its military applications is growing. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the literature on international norms and employs rich, detailed case studies to analyze the evolution of norms surrounding AI-powered weapons, making it important reading for those interested in international norms and emerging technologies.