Abstract

This chapter focuses on the definition of autonomous weapons systems (AWS). It offers a comparative analysis of existing official definitions of AWS as provided by state actors and international organisations, like the International Committee of the Red Cross and NATO. The analysis highlights that the definitions focus on different aspects of AWS and hence lead to different approaches to address relevant ethical and legal problems. The lack of a shared definition of AWS and the difference in regulatory approaches facilitate the current gap of regulation of the use of these weapons. The chapter closes this gap and builds on the comparative analysis to identify essential aspects of AWS —autonomy, learning capabilities of AWS, human control, and purpose of use—and to offer a definition of AWS with the goal of providing a value-neutral, shared ground for the debate on the ethical and legal problems related to these weapin systems.