Political Minefields

Matthew Breay Bolton is associate professor of political science at Pace University in New York City. He has participated in the global campaigns on landmines, cluster munitions, killer robots and the arms trade. Since 2014, Bolton has worked on the UN and New York City advocacy of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), recipient of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.

• Foreword, Jody Williams, Chair, Nobel Women’s Initiative, 1997 Nobel Peace Prize co-Laureate 1. Explosive Traps: An Introduction 2. Bombies: Automated Air War, Laos3. Perfect Soldiers: Proxy War, Cambodia4. Fragmentation: New War, Bosnia5. Detritus: War on Terror, Afghanistan6. Red Roads: Everywhere War, Sudan and South Sudan7. Killer Robots: Digital War, USASurvivorhood: Epilogue, United NationsAcknowledgementsAcronymsNotesIndex

Matthew Bolton documents his experience working in humanitarian fieldwork, diplomatic settings, and academia. He approaches efforts to eradicate landmines and tackle other problematic weapons through the inclusive lens of human security as opposed to more narrowly focused national security concerns. Bolton examines the “depersonalization of killing” that has accompanied the use of unmanned aerial vehicles or drones and flags the need to tackle the multiple challenges posed by fully autonomous armed robots. Throughout Bolton emphasizes the role of civil society to show how when ordinary people work together they can achieve extraordinary impact.