Bundeswehr of the Future – Responsibility and Artificial Intelligence
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This anthology discusses the framework conditions for a responsible use of AI in the German armed forces from historical, political, social, ethical, and legal perspectives. Among other interrogations, these contributions address the question of how the principles of inner leadership can be further developed to take into account artificially intelligent technologies and, conversely, how artificially intelligent machines can be conceived in such a way that maintains people’s mental and emotional awareness and that technically facilitates their responsible use in military operations.
Foreword
Bundeswehr of the Future: Citizens in Uniform and Artificial Intelligence
The letter in which I was asked to write the foreword to this anthology arrived a few days before Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine. That makes it clear that the questions at hand, to which so many excellent authors have dedicated themselves, did not arise with the war in Ukraine. They are fundamental questions, indeed challenges, arising from the technological developments of recent decades.
Introduction
Military mission between technical options and ethical orientations
Since Russia's attack on Ukraine in February 2022, the mission and equipment of the German armed forces have shifted the focus of public attention towards national security. Politicians and German society have realized with sudden horror that, because of a seemingly completely changed threat situation, we can currently protect ourselves military-wise insufficiently.
Chapter 1
Inner leadership in the area of tension with artificial intelligence: What does this mean for the citizen in uniform?
Thinking and shaping inner leadership and artificial intelligence together.
The concept of inner leadership is an integral part of the German armed forces. It anchors the German armed forces, with soldiers as citizens in uniform at the heart of our society. This anchor shall not be released by the use of artificial intelligence. As much inner leadership in artificial intelligence as possible and as much artificial intelligence in inner leadership as necessary - with these two guidelines, inner leadership and artificial intelligence can be thought about and designed together. By doing so, the principles of inner leadership can also exist in the German armed forces of the future, and the model of the citizen in uniform can be found.
Inner Leadership in the Age of artificial intelligence
The article does not see artificial intelligence (AI) as an opposition to inner leadership nor as a threat. On the contrary, inner leadership provides already valuable indications for a responsible approach to AI as a compass of values with the free democratic basic order and the Basic Law as a framework. The human representation of the concept of inner leadership is based on the fundamental maturity and responsibility of the citizen in uniform, which must be fostered in the interests of personal development. AI can also provide valuable impulses for the further conceptual development of this leadership philosophy if the possibilities and limits as well as the opportunities and risks of AI are defined and analyzed beforehand. AI is not an end in itself. AI must facilitate leadership, processes, and decisions or even improve them, and at the same time represent added value in terms of security policy. However, the ultimate ethical responsibility remains with the individual, the soldier as a citizen in uniform.
Three Theses on the National Regulation of Autonomy in Weapon Systems.
This article argues that Germany needs a national guideline for the use of autonomy in weapon systems. With the use of three theses, it is shown that a consensus prevails on the needed conceptual basis, that the form of regulation has been clarified and that no military disadvantage will result from it.
Chapter 2
From Yesterday to Today to Tomorrow: Inner Leadership an Achievement of Intellectual History?
Only the one who knows where he comes from becomes aware of its points of view, perceives the important and correct goals, and can choose paths that lead to them. A look at the history of the German armed forces is therefore essential. What lessons did the young Federal Republic learn from the Nazi era with its reign of terror and total war? Why is inner leadership the basis of “leadership, education and training" in the German armed forces? What hides behind the concept of the citizen in uniform? In a debate, Sönke Neitzel and Peter Tauber address these questions and try to highlight differences and similarities.
Chapter 3
Military dimensions: How much artificial intelligence does the German armed forces need?
Digitization of the armed forces: a (not only) technical view
Digitization necessarily brings the sciences together due to its cross-cutting nature and broad applications. Military application is not a special case, but it requires special considerations of responsibility, ethics, and leadership. Humans, technology, and ethics become interrelated "domains." Data centricity and cyberspace require a new form of resilience. At the same time, leadership—while maintaining a mission tactic—needs to be significantly modified for a digital environment.
The German armed forces and the Battlefield of the Future: Development Perspectives in Connection with Artificial Intelligence from the Perspective of a Defence Planner
Defence planning is comprehensive in nature and looks far ahead. It attempts to anticipate, with the help of future analysis, what the armed forces might face. It provides a vision of what they will need to accomplish and what they will need to do it. The Strategic Foresight, with a perspective of approximately 25 years, describes a range of possibilities for long-term security policy developments based on relevant trends. These abstract ideas must be further operationalized. What might an operational environment or battlefield look like in ten to 15 years from now? What conclusions must the armed forces draw from this?
Reflections on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Military Command and Control Process
The article deals with the role of artificial intelligence in the military command and control process. The basis is a changed image of war based on future technological developments, which inevitably force the command and control process to adapt. The article highlights that with AI support, humans will be able to make faster and better decisions.
Chapter 4
Policy implications: What course must policymakers set now?
Responsible use of artificial intelligence
The principle of the citizen in uniform, drawn from the inner leadership which is based on the values of the Basic Law, specifically the respect for and protection of human dignity. The soldiers of the German armed forces are committed to these values and act accordingly in the performance of their duties. With artificial intelligence, a new, outstanding technological change has also made its way into the military sector. The German armed forces will not be able to ignore this technology but must find a way to use it responsibly in accordance with the values of inner leadership.
The strongest conventional NATO forces in Europe
The dramatic deterioration of the security situation calls for a sustainable readjustment of German security and defence policy. At its core, this should aim to build the German armed forces as the strongest conventional NATO forces in Europe and thus the backbone of NATO defence in Europe. This would enable Germany to live up to its demographic, economic, and financial weight within the alliance and satisfy the justified expectations of its allies. But to implement this goal, clear political objectives, long-term planning, and sustained investment in the German armed forces are required.
For peace, freedom, and a strong Germany in a strong Europe
The 2022 events, above all Russia's invasion of Ukraine, painfully revealed our dependencies. We are dependent on the U.S. militarily, on Russia for energy, and on China economically. To gain independence in the future and to shape ourselves instead of being shaped, we need to project strength in all areas.
Chapter 5
Policy implications: What course must policymakers set now?
Accountability as a design principle of defence technology systems.
Without the algorithmic world, without Artificial Intelligence (AI), the military technosphere is unmanageable. AI is the key technology of future defence systems, enhancing the natural intelligence and autonomy of humans to the extent required in each case, in some cases far beyond a natural level. However, the question of how to deal with this responsibly does not only arise with the use of artificially intelligent weapons but already with the demand to design military equipment in such a way that its use always remains responsible. Europeans must not betray their way of life and their world of values by defending them in contradiction to them.
Digitization of the German Armed Forces
Digitization optimizes the assertiveness of the armed forces, increases the operational capability of the Bundeswehr as a whole and on the digitalized battlefield, and supports administrative actions. Digitization thus plays a key role in helping the Bundeswehr fulfil its missions. With its principles of modularity, scalability, and reusability, the Bundeswehr's digitization platform, which is currently under development, makes the establishment of result chains for operations as transparent as possible. The standardization of artificial intelligence capabilities in an analytics and simulation cluster also creates the conditions for responsible use of the processes available in this area. The set of rules established for this purpose can and must be based on the canon of values established in the Bundeswehr, which has proven itself over many years with the concept of inner leadership. It focuses on the responsible citizen, who also guides value-based actions in the performance of the military mission.
Read the article "Digitization of the Bundeswehr" by Major General Dr. Michael Färber as a PDF here.
Cooperative systems and hybrid intelligence
To assess the opportunities and risks of "artificially intelligent machines," the concept of disruptive technology is helpful. Originally developed in a civil environment, this concept is increasingly being adopted for defence applications, the "sharp end of digitization." A look at defence applications should serve as an example of how solutions such as cooperative systems and hybrid intelligence can be derived for the fundamental problem of digitization by integrating people, technology, and organizations holistically.
Chapter 6
International Perspective – what can we learn from our partners?
Germany and Israel – Approaches to the Future Battlefield: The Armed Drones as a Case Study
Notwithstanding certain immutable features of war, some of its concrete techniques do change, notably following new technological developments. Advanced electronic weapon systems, including armed drones, are a case in point. We shall examine how countries handle the opportunities and challenges involved by means of a comparative analysis of Israel and Germany.
France and Germany – Assessing a common praxis: towards the development, the use and the rise of artificial intelligence?
The following article argues that Artificial Intelligence (AI) still holds much untapped potential and could constitute an essential part of future weapons systems in the next few years. AI is a technology of dual interest with an extremely wide range of applications. Defence and security are not the only sectors to be affected by the rapid development of AI, like the economy, law, institutions, health etc. For the moment, the use of this technology might not seem revolutionary, but it becomes clear that in terms of resources, humans are just as important as artificially intelligent technologies themselves. Computers are able to outperform humans when it comes to some tasks, however, the competence of the machine usually stops at the execution of those tasks. Finally, beyond the multitude of issues, questions of sovereignty and technological autonomy form a common thread regarding power and competition amongst states and private actors. Looking ahead, the EU AI strategy proposes powerful synergies between European partners that will ensure our present and future autonomy, and will play a key role.
Artificial Intelligence, Geopolitics, and the US-China Relationship
Understanding the current US approach to artificial intelligence (AI) has less to do with how AI is currently being used in the military domain than it does with how the United States is approaching the rise of China, and the policy choices to which this framework leads. US apprehension about China’s advancing economic and military capabilities has catalysed efforts not only to integrate AI-enabled technologies into the US defense enterprise, but also to use tools of economic statecraft to stymie China’s ability to do the same. It is impossible to predict whether these efforts will succeed in endowing the United States military with technological superiority over China’s People’s Liberation Army, but the repercussions of the attempt for the overall US-China relationship are serious and likely to be longlasting.
Chapter 7
Industrial policy implications: What should the defence industry provide?
Dear defence industry: Be agile, or you will be surpassed by the new reality
Agility is the basic principle behind the work on digital innovations. The term is far more than a buzzword; behind it are principles such as adaptability, flexibility, speed, and proactive action or anticipatory thinking, without which technical innovations in the digital world would not be possible. However, cooperation between the military and German industry still lacks agility. Moreover, a lack of industrial agility is becoming a core problem that also impacts the capability of security policy to react quickly and adaptively to changing global political situations. The practical implementation of the Zeitenwende is inconceivable without agile thinking and action. Four problem areas must be solved as soon as possible. First: Innovations continue to be conceptualized too far into the future. Second, the procurement time is far too long. Third: Tender times are far too long. Fourth, the nonexistence of interfaces is becoming an obstacle to innovation. The need for action is there, and it is urgent. In light of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, we should finally perceive something of a "sense of urgency"—the urgent need to solve these long-term problems.
Inner leadership in light of digitization
The basic principles of the Bundeswehr's inner leadership are more relevant today than ever before. In the system competition, success will come to those who understand the potential of digitization and can orchestrate it while taking basic social values into account. AI applications represent one aspect of this. The publication emphasizes that innovation cycles are becoming increasingly fast-moving. This requires agile structures and a digital mindset in politics, administration, business, and the Bundeswehr to defend the order of values.
On the Industrial Policy Implications of the Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Military Field.
This paper argues that the Federal Republic of Germany must address AI (artificial intelligence) from a security policy perspective to ensure its defence capability in the future in the face of changing times. For this to succeed, it is necessary to consider national industrial policy demands and bring the necessary context to the mostly generic AI debate. How this can work successfully is shown by the comparative analysis of selected neighbouring countries (France and the UK), which are working together with their national industries and scientists on technological solutions for military AI deployment. Furthermore, in the global competition for AI supremacy, it is relevant to gain the upper hand from a European perspective to be adequately capable of defence and deterrence in the changing global defence and security environment. The question discussed is whether the approach envisioned by the EU, in the form of the so-called AI Act, is suitable for achieving this goal or could be overly restrictive to the industry's technological development capabilities.
Industrial policy perspective
Germany has relied for much longer on other states to provide for its external security. Especially after 1990, German budgets for all military things were significantly reduced - with the consequences that are now well known. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has fundamentally changed the geopolitical situation. Whether the transformation of German security and defense policy will prove to be a long-term change will only become clear in a few years' time. German and European industry can make an important contribution to its implementation. Against this background, the continued strategic partnership between industry and governments in Europe is an essential requirement for the long-term success of European security and defense policy. This includes European cooperation projects as well as the promotion of new technologies and smart regulations for the common export.
Read the article "Industrial policy perspective" by Dr. Michael Schöllhorn as PDF here.
Chapter 8
The ethical-legal imperative: How is the digital transformation of the armed forces following it?
Value and people in the ethics of AI
The use of digital systems, especially artificial intelligence (AI) systems, in morally sensitive areas of our coexistence must always be examined ethically and philosophically. There is a multitude of reasons that go deeper than a general reference to potential or even science fiction scenarios that view AI systems as a danger to humanity based on the Terminator model. In what follows, I will begin by explaining what is meant by "AI" and "AI systems," respectively. Subsequently, I will argue that the ethics of AI are concerned with the question of how human-machine interaction should be designed. This moves the question to the human context of the AI application. It finally goes back to the human being as an unconditional source of value, entitled to dignity not only as an object of possible technical-military operations but, (above all) as the subject of his value judgments.
Read the article "Value and Humans in the Ethics of AI" by Prof. Dr. Markus Gabriel as a PDF here.
About the added value of the human soldier
Can military decisions, and thus ultimately the decision to kill, be outsourced to fully autonomous lethal weapon systems (LAWs), also called "combat robots"? Proponents of such a "dehumanization" of warfare are referring, as an instance, to the lack of emotions, higher performance and resilience of such systems, which ultimately "humanizes" combat. If the concept of human dignity, as laid down among other things in the Basic Law and on which the concept of inner leadership is based, as the central criterion, there are at least doubts about this line of argument. Human dignity implies the prohibition of turning people into objects and subjecting the individual to an instrumental calculation. However, the ethical dimension of the decision about life and death - which, with Paul Scharre, can be seen as the "core of the soldier's profession" - is left out of a purely algorithm-based process. With the increasing removal of the human soldier from the decision-making chain, empathy and all the considerations that follow from it fall out of reach. Because there is unlikely to be an international consensus on the definition and prohibition of LAWs in the predictable future, it is even more important to counter tendencies to "outsource" military force and to incorporate value-based considerations into the development and deployment of such systems.
Read the article "About the added value of the human soldier" by Dr. Veronika Bock as PDF here:
Artificial intelligence – beyond/on the other side of Eden
There is no reason to worry; even with artificial intelligence, man remains a creature among creatures. Against the backdrop of the biblical paradise narrative, the author explores ethical issues surrounding the development and application of artificial intelligence. As with other technological innovations in the past, the question appears whether we need new ethics. Von Schubert does not believe this is a necessity. Instead, care must be taken to ensure that no morality- or law-free spaces are created in the exuberance of new technological possibilities. This does not require reinventing ethics.
Read the article "Artificial Intelligence: beyond Eden" by Dr. Hartwig von Schubert as a PDF here.
Chapter 9
Social acceptance: How can we make the Bundeswehr capable of acting?
A social responsibility for the use of artificial intelligence?
This article focuses on the socio-political dimension of the debate on AI and inner leadership. It starts from the assumption that civil society has to be included in the debates about the increased use of AI and elaborates on the relationship of the citizens to the Bundeswehr. The first part examines how the interplay between civil society and the Bundeswehr is laid out in the German constitution. It concludes that the responsibility of citizens for the Bundeswehr and its equipment can be derived from the Basic Law, which may also relate to the procurement and use of AI. The second part describes how citizens are not aware of the extent of their responsibility and makes an attempt to explain it.
Defence and security policy in the field of tension between the discourse of elites and public opinion
Since the end of the Cold War, the Bundeswehr has experienced a disarmament to an unforeseeable extent. The demise of the bloc confrontation seemed to make the realization of a peace dividend possible, and indeed, Germany's defence capability was reduced exceedingly. The preservation of defence capability, however, is based on the insight that peace orders are not necessarily built to last indefinitely and that the possibility of an aggressor who cannot be contained by negotiation always exists. Germany's ignorance of violence in international relations, which is based on its philosophy of history, has blinded politicians to these enemies of the liberal society. However, Germany's observable hesitancy in matters of defence and security policy has its roots more in the values of the elites and their (false) assessment of public opinion than in the actual values of the population in general. The basic consensus on Germany's defence capability exists on a broad scale and has been stable for years. It is only with the Russian invasion of Ukraine that there are signs of a turning point. Strengthening the performance and defence capabilities of the Bundeswehr cannot be achieved without comprehensive digitization of the armed forces. At any rate, the population will willingly follow this path toward greater defence capability in the technological field and the assumption of considerable foreign policy responsibility if politics lives up to this greater responsibility.
"... as if peace on earth really exists" (Die Toten Hosen, Nur auf Besuch).
The so-called "Turning point" in the wake of the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine has fundamentally changed the way German civil society looks at the Bundeswehr. Pacifist principles and appeasement policies have been put to the test and are becoming less and less convincing amidst the current crisis. German policymakers must always be conscious of their special historical responsibility, but in a fundamentally changed world, this cannot remain with the good intentions of past decades. "Never again" must be interpreted in light of current reality.
Closing Remarks
Responsibility and artificial intelligence
The digital transformation marks a turning point of its own, which has already encompassed the armed forces. Shaped by lessons learned from "total war" and criminal dictatorship, as well as the transformation from an "army of unity" to a post-Cold War army in action, the Bundeswehr is now combining with artificially intelligent high technology.
