Study #20

Conventional arms control and emerging technologies

The verifiability of limits or bans on countable units of military hardware is a key element of successful arms control. A number of new technologies, however, do not lend themselves to this quantitative approach. This study looks at hypersonic glide vehicles, autonomy in weapons systems and brain-computer interfaces as examples of new and emerging technologies and points out the need for regulation before going on to discuss how qualitative arms control can meet these new challenges.