Diffusion of responsibility: on the changing relationship between liability and responsibility in global security architectures

Dr. Valentin Rauer

In recent decades, we have observed a global dissolution of security regulations. Digital robotic platforms control the buying and selling of currencies in milliseconds, or they kill individual people across continental distances as so-called ‘combat drones’. Such robotic transaction chains transfer some of the decision-making power from humans to autonomous platforms. These transfers have explosive consequences for the normative orders of modern societies. They prevent events and developments from being clearly traced back to the actions and decisions of individual or legal persons and change the status of what we understand as ‘actors’ (Teubner 2007). For example, it is unclear who is responsible for the actions of combat drones – the CIA, the president, the army, the pilot at the joysticks or the programmer of the digital algorithm? All of these actors are involved in the transaction chain – but who is liable in the event of a failure and who bears public and moral responsibility? This project, which is located in Research Field 3, therefore examines the constellations of responsibility in global security regimes in times of increasing digitalization (cooperation with Prof. C. Daase; Prof. Gunther Hellmann, Dr. Thorsten Thiel).

Intermediate results: First, two boundary logics were distinguished: linear versus zonal boundary logics. Linear boundaries articulate a difference between humans and machines as an either-or and operate with a logic of difference between human actors on the one hand and machines on the other. Only the human actors are then considered responsible, while digital infrastructures are ignored. Zonal boundaries interpret the actors more diffusely as a constellation of both/and. These actors are regarded here as hybrids and open themselves up to a variation of politically contested modes of attribution of agency.

The most important publications presenting the interim results:

Rauer, Valentin: “Centered and diffusing guilt. A sociological perspective”, in: T. Moos/S. Engert (ed.): Vom Umgang mit Schuld, Frankfurt/M: Campus, 2016, pp. 301 -330.

Junk, Julian & Valentin Rauer: Combining methods: connections and zooms in analyzing hybrids. In: G. Schlag/J. Junk/C. Daase (eds.): Dialogues on Security. Identity and Diversity in Security Studies, London: Routledge, 2015, pp. 225 -241.

Rauer, Valentin: “Diffusion von Verantwortung und Haftung in komplexen Handlungszusammenhängen”, in: C. Daase, Stefan et al. (eds.): Politik und Unsicherheit, Frankfurt/M: Campus, 2014, pp. 105 -118.

Further publications are currently in print and in the review process.

The most important events and lectures:

Conference: “Politics and Responsibility. Analyses of the change in political decision-making and justification practices”. February 9-12, 2016, authors’ conference due to the acquisition of a special issue of the PVS 2017 (Politische Vierteljahresschrift) in cooperation and collaboration with Prof. Dr. Christopher Daase, Dr. Stefan Kroll (both Cluster Research Field 3) and Julian Junk (HSFK).

“Superforcasting. On the sociology of prediction”. Workshop in the series “Normative Disorders” – Materialism and political action. (Organized by Dr. Kolja Möller, Postdoc, Cooperation Cluster Research Field 3) Cluster of Excellence “Normative Orders”, Goethe University Frankfurt/M, 16 December 2015.

“Responsibility in Risk- and Security Communication” (lecture with C. Daase). At the workshop Security Communication in Democracies: Security, Order, and Legitimacy in World Politics. Workshop, Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders”, Goethe University, Frankfurt/ Main, Bad Homburg, 5 – 7 November 2015. Organized by Prof. Dr. Gunther Hellmann, cooperation in Cluster Research Field 3.

Algorithmic action and the problem of diffusion of responsibility. At the Colloquium for Internet Research of the Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders”, Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main, organized by Dr. Matthias Kettelmann and Dr. Thorsten Thiel (cooperation in the Cluster).