Call for Papers: New Technologies on the Global Battlespace

This workshop is organised jointly by The University of Queensland’s Law and the Future of War Research Group and the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law’s International Peace and Security Interest Group (ANZSIL IPSIG).

Themes and Topics

Technology has become inextricably linked with national and global security. New developments in science and technology create new opportunities to protect national interests or to promote the global. At the same time, they give rise to new vulnerabilities and risks. Technological advances also raise many legal issues. These touch on all areas of international peace and security law, including international humanitarian law/the law of armed conflict, the law relating to the use of force, arms control law, peacekeeping law, human rights law, as well as international and transnational criminal law.

The 2022 edition of the IPSIG workshop seeks to facilitate a discussion between ANZSIL members and legal practitioners about their work pertaining to this broad theme. It will also allow them to come together, as is the IPSIG objective, to take stock of best practices in teaching and public engagement on international peace and security law issues.

We encourage, in particular, discussion of the following topics:

• New technologies in the global battlespace, such as military uses of unmanned and autonomous systems, cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, chemical and biological substances
• The use of new technologies outside of armed conflict in furtherance of national or global security and the applicable legal regimes and challenges, including questions about the notion of sovereignty in a digital age
• The use of technologies in the context of ‘grey zone activities’ aimed at destabilising adversary without triggering an armed conflict
• The use of new technologies in counterterrorism and surveillance
• The proliferation of military and security technologies, and regulatory responses, including export controls and sanctions
• The many roles of private actors in relation to new technologies
• The funding of military and national security technology
• New technologies and the international criminal trial, including the use of technology in the collection of evidence, the availability of cyber evidence, admissibility of evidence collected or created by technological means, and the judicial use of decision-support systems
• The regulatory framework of national and international cyber-security

These themes are indicative – we also encourage submissions of papers that questions related to the general theme. We welcome a discussion of the relevant legal issues from a variety of methodological and theoretical perspectives.

The workshop seeks to serve as a platform for exchange and reflection. Ideas do not need to be fully formed, but may be workshopped for mutual benefit during the course of the day.