On behalf of ICT4Peace and the Zurich Hub for Ethics and Technology (ZHET) Regina Surber and Daniel Stauffacher participated in the Conference “2019. Capturing Technology. Rethinking Arms Control” organized by the German Federal Foreign Office on 15 March 2019 in Berlin. The program of the Conference can be found here. The excellent Conference Reader can be found here.
The aim of the Conference was to have a dialogue on what the implications of the current technological trends on the global arms control architecture might have.
“The rapid speed of technological development in the fields of artificial intelligence, life sciences and digital technology is advancing global progress in areas such as agriculture, education, health and climate. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly clear that new technologies can be used for military purposes. The resulting new types of weapons and instruments may raise a number of critical questions with regards to their conformity with international law and their implications for global peace and stability. In sum, the emergence of new weapon systems and instruments may call into question the effectiveness of existing arms control arrangements. In this context, there might be a need to address and consider how we can best adjust and adapt existing arms control regimes to respond to these potentially disruptive changes.”
ICT4Peace and ZHET took a particular interest in the developments in the field of Biotechnology and participated in these discussions. A very good presentation of the issues can be found in the excellent report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI): Bio plus X, Arms Control and the Convergence of Biology and Emerging Technologies.