Who Fires The Shot? Closing The Authority Gap In Indo-Pacific Autonomous Warfare

Eurasia Review  |  Burak Oktenli

Autonomous military systems deployed by the United States, Australia, Japan, and India are rapidly integrating across Indo-Pacific coalitions, yet these partners lack a unified doctrine on who authorizes lethal force. This critical authority gap creates severe sovereignty and legal challenges that existing technical data standards cannot resolve, threatening coalition cohesion during high-speed crises.

National regulatory frameworks diverge significantly, ranging from permissive American directives to restrictive Japanese constitutional limits and strict Indian demands for human control. To resolve this, a proposed Coalition Authority Interoperability Protocol introduces a computable framework operating above existing network layers. This additive protocol utilizes machine-readable national profiles to establish a conservative coalition floor, ensuring no partner is bound by another's more permissive posture. Cryptographic multi-signature rules enforce these thresholds across sovereign boundaries at operational speeds, while a secure hash-bridge ledger maintains accountability without exposing classified data, allowing fluid regional security architectures to safely coordinate joint unmanned operations.

Comment

New Delhi must maintain strict sovereign control over its military decision-making processes. Collaborative frameworks with Western partners should not compromise national command authority. India's unique border challenges require tailored defence doctrines rather than imported software protocols. Strategic autonomy remains the cornerstone of Indian national security.

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