Book excerpt: The pairing of artificial intelligence (AI) with long-duration “stay-behind” weapons is the single disruptive technology with the greatest potential to impact U.S. national security in the mid-21st century. These weapons, known as continuous-operation, lethal autonomous weapons systems (CLAWS), are designed to select and engage targets without human involvement while conducting a range of offensive and defensive actions across all phases of operations. Although fully-autonomous weapons raise complicated questions concerning international law and human rights, CLAWS development continues a pace, with very little international oversight, regulation, or public debate. As CLAWS proliferate and integrate into offensive and defensive military systems, they will interact in complex, unpredictable ways.The first nation to deploy CLAWS in significant numbers will enjoy a short-term strategic advantage, potentially serving as an unbalancing action resulting in an escalation of hostilities among great powers such as the U.S., China,and Russia.