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18 Emory Int'l L. Rev. 645 (2004)
In This Era of "Smart Weapons," Is a State under an International Legal Obligation to Use Precision-Guided Technology in Armed Conflict?

handle is hein.journals/emint18 and id is 651 raw text is: IN THIS ERA OF SMART WEAPONS, IS A STATE UNDER AN INTERNATIONAL LEGAL OBLIGATION TO USE PRECISION-GUIDED TECHNOLOGY IN ARMED CONFLICT? INTRODUCTION Everyone has seen the grainy images of a laser-guided bomb flicker across the television or a Tomahawk missile zeroing in on the targeted air duct or front door of the building it was aimed at suddenly ending in a static-filled screen indicating a direct hit. These popular images, referred to as slam-cam clips, have given the viewing public a front-row seat for the early stages of what is known as a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA).1 An RMA is defined as something that generates fundamental changes to the nature and architecture of war.2 An example of an RMA is the detonation of the nuclear bomb which ushered in a changing landscape of extended deterrence, limited nuclear options, and ballistic missile systems.' The current RMA is one driven by a massive influx of information technology and communication systems that allow the war fighter to process enormous amounts of data very quickly and to disseminate real time strategic information that creates an extraordinarily fast operations tempo.4 However, the scope and the direction in which the current RMA is taking the military is still up for debate.5 What is not Christian Lowe, Smarter Bombs, WKLY. STANDARD, Jan. 9, 2003, available at httpJ/www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printerpreview.asp?idArticle=2089 (last visited Oct. 29, 2004). 2 Michael N. Schmitt, Bellum Americanum The U.S. View of Twenty-First Century War And Its Possible Implications For the Law of Armed Conflict, 19 MICH. J. INT'L L. 1051, 1059 (1998). Id. at 1058. Besides nuclear weapons, Napoleon's use of the civilian soldier, which created huge citizen armies and incorporated the whole of French society into the conflict, is another example of an RMA. See Select Enemy. Delete, ECONOMIST, Mar. 8, 1997, at 21. See Schmitt, supra note 2, at 1062-63. See Michael J. Vickers, The Revolution in Military Affairs and Military Capabilities, in WAR IN THE INFORMATION AGE 31 (Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Jr. & Richard H. Shultz, Jr. eds., 1997); James R. Fitzsimonds & Jan M. Van Tol,

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