Dr. Ken Payne DeepMind, the world’s leading Artificial Intelligence outfit, has released a remarkable new study with implications for those of us interested in war, cooperation, and the strategic ramifications of AI. You can read and watch it here. In short, their agents demonstrated the ability to relate socially in a competitive environment. When resources… Read More Breaking: Opening salvo fired in coming war with machines
Professor Andrew M Dorman and Professor Matthew R H Uttley Centre for British Defence and Security Studies As we entered 2017 the Ministry of Defence earmarked 2017 as the ‘year of the Royal Navy (RN)’. In the press release that accompanied the announcement key milestones for 2017 were highlighted, including the new aircraft carrier HMS… Read More 2017 – the Year of the Royal Navy: time to get real?
This is one in a series of occasional posts from scholars outside of the Defence Studies Department. If you would be interested to contribute to this series please contact the editors: Dr Amir Kamel and Dr David Morgan-Owen. DR MATTHEW FORD Dr Matthew Ford is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Sussex. His book Weapon of… Read More Beyond Effectiveness on the Battlefield: reframing Military Innovation in terms of time, networks and power
LOUIS HALEWOOD Louis is a current DPhil student at the University of Oxford. He holds an MA in History from the University of Calgary. Louis is co-organiser of the upcoming ‘Economic Warfare and the Sea’ Conference, to be held at All SoulS College in July 2017. A recording of the talk this post is drawn from is… Read More Sea Power, Alliances, and Diplomacy: British Naval Supremacy in the Great War Era
By Dr. Ellen Hallams and Dr. Tracey German In April 2016, Donald Trump declared ‘We must as a nation be more unpredictable.’ In a speech on foreign policy during the Republican primary campaign, Trump – who at that point was the front-runner for the GOP nomination – set out what the New York Times in… Read More The Age of Uncertainty: US Foreign Policy in the Trump Era?
DR JONATHAN FENNELL Co-Director of The Research Centre for the History of Conflict, Defence Studies Department, King’s College London Michelle Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Convention in July 2016 caught my imagination, as it did, I’m sure, many of the readers of Defence-in-depth. ‘When someone is cruel or acts like a bully’, she said,… Read More The Relevance of Conflict History in 2017
Dr. Andreas Krieg On 20 January Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated to become the 45th President of a country trying to find its role in a globalized world. The United States remain the strongest economy and possess the most capable military force in the world. Yet, in the apolar world of the 21st century… Read More Trump’s Improvised Foreign Policy
DR TIM BENBOW This time last year, the editors of Defence-in-Depth asked me in my capacity as Director of the DSD Strategy and Defence Policy Research Centre to look forward to the year ahead. I used the opportunity to consider the challenges facing British strategy and defence policy in 2016. I mentioned Russia and the linked… Read More Looking ahead to 2017: ‘Brexit’ and Britain’s role in the world
DR BLEDDYN BOWEN This post is based aspects of a forthcoming paper presented at the ISA Annual Convention 2017 in Baltimore, MD. Ten years ago, on 11th January 2007, a road-mobile SC-19 Chinese antisatellite (ASAT) weapons test renewed interest, debate, and occasional polemic hysteria, in the role of space weapons in international security and Sino-US… Read More China’s space weapons test ten years on: Behemoth pulls the peasants’ plough
By Dr Rod Thornton Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently repeated his country’s long-held territorial claim to Mosul and the whole of northern Iraq. Such a claim is based on the belief prevalent in Turkey that this area had, as territory of the Ottoman empire, been illegally seized by the British in November 1918… Read More Erdogan and the National Pact: the fallout today from the British Army’s seizing of Mosul in 1918
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