Ken Payne, Defence Studies Department, King’s College London Military leadership has some distinctive and enduring features, some of which look set to be challenged by the increasing adoption of autonomous systems, including AI weapons. When the British Chief of the Defence Staff speculates about an army of 30,000 robots, it’s probably a good time to… Read More Leadership in an age of Artificial Intelligence
Rod Thornton and Marina Miron This is the first in a regular series looking at news of the Russian military that comes predominantly from a review of the Russian media. There has been a series of confrontations in recent months between Russian and US naval vessels. While nothing serious has resulted from these clashes, they… Read More Russian Military Latest: Another Russia-US naval confrontation
Professor Greg Kennedy, Director, Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies The announcement of the biggest investment in the United Kingdom’s Armed Forces in almost forty years by Prime Minister Boris Johnson has prompted much speculation about what the Royal Navy will be able to do with this new-found largesse. While many knowledgeable observers of the… Read More New Money for the Royal Navy: So What?
Dr Helen McCartney, Reader, Defence Studies Department, King’s College London Remembrance is a political act. In public discussions surrounding Extinction Rebellion’s recent cenotaph protest, it has been suggested by the Royal British Legion (among others) that Armistice Day is ‘not for political protest’. This view ignores the fact that remembrance is inherently political. It marks… Read More Extinction Rebellion and the politics of remembrance
Dr Christian Tripodi, Senior Lecturer, Defence Studies Department I don’t do irony. It’s far too knowing and indeed far too clever. Which is rather ironic as the title of my new book The Unknown Enemy: Counterinsurgency and the Illusion of Control suggests a thoroughly intentional nod to irony. Why so? Because in a book about… Read More The Unknown Enemy
Rod Thornton and Marina Miron On 20 July this year, the Russian Deputy Minister of Defence, Ruslan Tsalikov, announced that his military had developed a COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus) vaccine. It was, he said, ‘ready’ to use. This was some three weeks before the world was told officially that Russia had actually licensed a vaccine.Tsalikov’s declaration… Read More Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine, the military input and what it may mean for the future use of biological weapons
Dr Andreas Krieg, King’s College London and Anas El Gomati, Sadeq Institute, Tripoli The 2020 US Presidential Elections are en route to become the most contested and potentially the most controversial in American history as President Trump has repeatedly refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. Beyond its effect locally on US democracy,… Read More Spoilers in Libya Might Just Be Longing for US Post-Electoral Chaos
Dr David Roberts, Defence Studies Department, King’s College London On Thursday 13th August, after trilateral discussions, President Trump announced a “full normalization of relations” between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel. This makes the UAE only the third Arab country to break the boycott of Israel (alongside Egypt in 1970 and Jordan in 1994).… Read More The UAE and Israel: Exploring the Logics of Engagement
Dr Kenneth Payne, Defence Studies Department Note from the Editor of Defence-in-Depth. Dr Kenneth Payne’s piece here is the first in a series representing the evidence given by various members of staff within the Defence Studies Department of King’s College London to the UK’s government’s Integrated Review process. This Review made a call for evidence… Read More Artificial Intelligence in the Integrated Review
Professor Ashley Jackson, Defence Studies Department While perhaps unworthy of a title echoing Spike Milligan’s Hitler: My Part in His Downfall, the fact that I have a Second World War ‘experience’, despite being born over a quarter-century after VE Day, says something about the conflict’s resonance in British society.[1] What was it that brought the… Read More The Second World War: My Part in Our Victory
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