[DILEMA Lecture] Efficiency in warfare? How artificial intelligence and automation are making the state and war incidental to warfare
Published 9 November 2024
Date: 14 November 2024
Time: 16:00-19:00 CET
Location: Asser Institute, The Hague
Don’t miss the opportunity to gain an insider’s view on warfare’s transformation in the digital age. On Thursday 14 November, renowned defense expert Rupert Barrett-Taylor (Alan Turing Institute) will challenge conventional views on conflict, showing how artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and advanced technologies are reshaping the role of war itself.
As the world relies more and more on digital advancements, we may be witnessing a pivotal shift: from warfare rooted in political objectives to an exercise of management and efficiency. Scholars Nordin and Oberg argue that today’s war resembles a controlled ‘battle-rhythm’, driven by repetitive tasks and managed processes.
DILEMA lecture keynote speaker Rupert Barrett-Taylor argues that this shift is far more than technological - it fundamentally redefines war’s purpose. With an influx of AI-driven surveillance and automated weaponry, modern warfare may be losing its core human accountability. Where Clausewitz argued that war was a political act, its modern incarnation manages the process of warfare but violence itself and the objective of war is incidental to this process.
Deeper implications
A question for scholars and practitioners is how to reclaim the practice of war and encourage the state to understand warfare in terms of its complex effects on those subject to it rather than as a problem of optimisation and efficiency?
Through a unique lens that combines socio-technical insight and decades of field experience, Rupert Barrett-Taylor will explore the deeper implications of this shift, drawing on Klikauer’s ‘managerialism’ theory. From AI’s role in decision-making to new efficiency-driven strategies, he will illustrate how digital technologies change our understanding of war, making the state - and war’s traditional objectives - seem incidental.
In a rare chance to engage directly with Dr Barrett-Taylor, you can join a moderated Q&A with Asser Institute researcher Klaudia Klonowska following the lecture. This event is your chance to hear from and connect with one of the field’s foremost thought leaders and discover how you can play a role in shaping the conversation.
A networking reception will conclude the event, offering a relaxed space to exchange ideas and build connections.
About the speaker
Dr Rupert Barrett-Taylor – Alan Turing Institute
Dr Rupert Barrett-Taylor brings over 20 years of defence and security experience, spanning aerospace engineering, socio-technical analysis, and civilian deployment as an analyst for the UK in Afghanistan.
He holds an undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering and a War Studies Masters. His PhD thesis is a socio-technical analysis problematising and critiquing the conventional understanding of software as a principal means for identifying targets, improving organisational efficiency, and optimising the targeting process.
Rupert’s experience includes operational deployment as a civilian analyst and liaison officer for the UK in Afghanistan and work as an open-source analyst within the private sector. He joined the Alan Turing Institute from his second stint in the UK’s Civil Service where his last role was as head of the team supporting the cross-government Integrated Security Fund with data and analytical expertise in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
About the DILEMA project
Designing International Law and Ethics into Military Artificial Intelligence (DILEMA)
The DILEMA project explores interdisciplinary perspectives on military applications of artificial intelligence (AI), with a focus on legal, ethical, and technical approaches on safeguarding human agency over military AI. It analyses in particular subtle ways in which AI can affect or reduce human agency and seeks to ensure compliance with international law and accountability by design. Read more.