'Autonomous' Weapons and Human Control

There is an ongoing debate on whether and how the use of certain emerging weapon technologies perceived as decreasingly allowing human control
over the use of force should be regulated or banned. The focus of the debate on such so-called autonomous weapon systems has from the outset been too narrow and misguided. The frame of ‘autonomy’ and the resulting weapon-centric focus on control, neglects that the effects of the military use of weapons may be controlled in many more ways than by restricting certain weapons or technologies. This chapter argues that the legal requirement to exercise control over the effects of the use of force, may be complied with by virtue of a range of (human) decisions preceding, during and even after employment of a particular weapon.