David Whetham, Kennneth Payne While much public discussion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is focused on Terminator-like killing machines, the official UK position is that there will always be a person in (or at least on – monitoring and able to intervene) the loop making any life-or-death decisions. Unfortunately, this rather ignores defensive uses of AI… Read More AI: In Defence of Uncertainty
Robert McCabe, Deborah Sanders and Ian Speller The majority of navies are small. Given that this is the case, why is so little written about their strategies, roles and capabilities in the twenty first century? Academic research has tended instead to focus on blue water navies. Where small navies are considered at all, this tends… Read More Europe, Small Navies and Maritime Security, Balancing Traditional Roles and Emergent Threats in the 21st Century
David Whetham Some people argue that war is such a terrible thing, atrocities and war crimes are simply an inevitable consequence. While those people might be right on the tragedy that is war, thankfully, the assumption that atrocities committed by our own forces simply have to be accepted is not shared by either Western society… Read More Dark Traits and Military Ethics
This post is the first in an ongoing series showcasing interdisciplinary research in the Defence Studies Department. Amir Magdy Kamel The former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously talked about ‘known knowns’ and consequently ‘unknown unknowns’ in 2002. The Department of Defense press briefing came when Rumsfeld was quizzed on the lack of WMD… Read More Using International Political Economy to Learn about Unknowns in Security Studies
Miranda Melcher There is a wealth of literature on the best methods to achieve buy-in among key stakeholders in post-civil conflict peace negotiations. Rothchild (1995), Kingma (1997), and Gutteridge (1962) all argue that agreeing specifics, particularly with regards to security issues (Hartzell 1999, Rothchild 2002, Jarstad and Nilsson 2008), is key to ensuring a treaty… Read More Military Involvement in Post-Conflict Peace Negotiations
Dr. Bleddyn Bowen This is a re-post from SpaceWatch.Global, a digital magazine and portal for those interested in space, where Dr. Bowen has a regular column. At the recent UK Space Conference in Wales it was announced (again) that the UK Government will set up a National Space Council (NSpC), having first signalled that intent… Read More Britain’s National Space Council: Putting the ‘bloody Union Jack’ on top of spacepower?
Verena Gruber Civil wars have been an increasingly frequent occurrence since 1989. The most significant difference to “regular”, inter-state conflicts is that in civil wars solutions to both war and peace must be found within the confinement of predetermined geographical borders. Separatism is rarely a solution, because the international community currently stresses sovereign territory as… Read More The Invisible Hand of Military Merger: Organisational Culture in Kurdistan
Kenneth Payne Thomas Schelling, greatest of the nuclear strategists, would have appreciated Jaguar Land Rover’s concept for a self-driving car. As it approaches a pedestrian crossing, the cartoon-like eyes above the car’s front bumper flick towards a woman who is about to step out. An intricate dance of minds ensues. We do this instinctively, every… Read More AI Arms and Influence
VICTORIA TAYLOR Victoria Taylor is an aviation historian based at the University of Hull and Sheffield Hallam University. Her ongoing PhD research focusses on the interwar and wartime relationship between the Luftwaffe and National Socialism in the Third Reich. ‘The work of the National Socialist Flyers Corps is bearing its fruits for the benefit of… Read More Fledglings of the Third Reich: The National Socialist Flyers Corps
STUART MACCRIMMON Stuart is a British Royal Marines officer studying a Masters by Research degree while attending the UK Defence Academy’s Advanced Command and Staff Course. His research has examined how human-machine teaming can deliver operational success, focussing on coherent approaches to technology, people and processes. His first in a series of three blogs questions… Read More UK Defence’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Landscape: is More Effort Required?
