The Future of Warfare: AI, Drones, Robotics, and Space in Contemporary and Future Conflicts 2100-ERASMUS-TFOW
Introduction to Modern Warfare Technologies and Basic Concepts
1. Overview of AI, Drones, Robotics, and Space in Warfare
2. Historical context and evolution of modern military technologies
3. The General Discussion over the Future of Warfare/RMA (Revolution in Military Affairs): Introduction to the Course
4. The evolution of technological eras and the theory of war
5. History and Intellectual Dynamics Over the “Future Warfare” Discourse;
6. Theories of the Strategic and Military Operational Environments: American, Russian, and Chinese Doctrines
7. Cognitive Warfare and Asymmetric Ethics
8. System Warfare
9. Mosaic/Quantum Warfare
10. The Principles of Space Warfare (Geo and LEO System of Earth Security)
11. Theory of the “Brain of Army” and the modern doctrines of Command-and-Control Systems
12. Electronic Warfare in the New Technologic Era
13. Cyber Warfare
14. Philosophy of Future Warfare: The Theories of Singularity, Futurology, Posthumanism, and Transhumanism and RTS Games/Mathimatic Models
15. Military Management. Who will control the autonomous systems and the place of the Human being?
Is Cybernetics (“Cybirnetics of Cybirnetics”) the best model to understand the current intellectual, technological and biological transition in civil and military spheres?
16. From Sputnik Effect to Bayraktar Effect
Ethical and Legal Aspects
Ethical considerations of autonomous weapons
International law and regulations governing military technology
Society/Human Being - In the New Technological Era - “The Drone Eats With Me”
Geopolitics (Astropolitics) of Space
Great power competition in space and implications to the war and global power composition;
The U.S. Space Strategy: Space Forces, The Starlink, OneWeb, Artemis Program, SpaceX
Chinese Space Capabilities and Ambitions
The Russian Wrong Assessment of the Future of Space Warfare;
The New Great Powers and Space Race
The Principles of the Geospatial Intelligences
The Case Study “The Global Context of the Space Factor in the Russo-Ukrainian War”
1. Pre-War Situation: The Role of the Satellites
2. American Assessment of the Engagement to the War
3. Conference: Satellites 2022 and 2023
4. GEOINT 2022 Symposium
5. Geopolitical Implications of the War: Space and Technological Aspects
6. Small Satellites and The Anti-Satellite Weapons (ASATs)
7. The UN Discussion on Reducing Space Threats
8. First Space Battles Ahead of Us
9. All-Domain Operations: The Russo-Ukraine War Impact
10. The Concept of Coup D’oeil
11. NRO Satellites and Ukraine
12. Elon Musk: Enters to the Geopolitics
13. The SpaceX Capabilities in Eastern Europe
14. OneWeb and Starlink Cooperation: Ukrainian Factor
15. Satellites, Starlink and Future Warfare: Theoretical Aspects
16. Maxar Technologies is building the “Global Eye.”
17. The Crystalline World: Transparency and Coup D’oeil
Artificial Intelligence
The Fog of War Concept in the New Technologic Era
“Brain of the Army” and “Coup D’oeil”
God, Man, the State, War, and Machine?
Supercomputer and AI as Military Tools
Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2)
DARPA’s Mosaic Warfare and the Role of AI and Robotics
The Decision-Centric Warfare and Mosaic Warfare
Drones and Robotics as Weapons of Mass Destruction and Dehumanization
The Principles of Drone and Robotic Warfare
AI Language Models (GPT) and their impact on International Security and the general concept of war
AI applications in the U.S., China, Japan, Russia, etc.
Nuclear Weapons and Intelligent Weapons
Military Robotic Revolution: Autonomous Systems (Drones and UAVs) and Other Robotic Systems
1. The military revolutions that changed that course and way of war;
2. Dehumanisation - Unmanned vs. Manned
3. History of application of Unmanned systems;
4. International Law and UAVs;
5. The Principles of the Drone Warfare;
6. Drone Proliferation and Dronization/Robotization
Analytical Part: International Conflicts and Modern Warfare
The UAVs and International Conflicts
The Role of Drones and Satellites in U.S. Military Operations and Domination
Global South and the West: Unexpected Military-Technologic Competition
Houthis and Saudis in Yemen: Technologic Aspect of the Conflict
Turkey and its technical strategy and its wars
Iranian role in the development of technological sovereignty and the role of the Iranian drone
Nagorno-Karabakh War and the factor of UAVs
ISIS’s Drone Warfare
Israeli-Palestinian/Hezbollah Wars and Drone Factor
The Russian war against Ukraine: general overview (military technologic discussion)
The Russian Drone, Space, and AI programs
The Russian Invasion of Ukraine and Ukrainian Drone Strategy
American and allies’ assistance to Ukraine: Drones, AI, and Space Factors
The Iranian and Chinese Technologic Assistance to Russia
The Big Picture
The Distribution of Technological Power in the World Before and Now
The Great Power Struggle for the Resources and Domains: Metals, Minerals, and Technologic Capabilities (Semiconductors)
The Technologic Capabilities Supercomputers and Semiconductors: Are Defining Factors of Great Power Status?
Chinese Military Technologic Strategy
Russian Vision on the Future of Warfare
American strategic vision on the future warfare
India and the new global military-technological Context
Iran, Turkey, and Poland: Technologic Sovereignty
The Role of Nuclear Weapons in the New Technologic Era
The Future Warfare: Finalization of Discussion and the Course
Course coordinators
Assessment criteria
Assessment Methods:
Research Papers “International Security and Future Technologies: (……)” - The students propose their vision or agle of research, which should be consulted with a teacher before.
Short Examp Based on the Literature Review
Class Participation
Bibliography
Recommended Readings:
Singer, P.W. (2009). Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century. Penguin Books.
Scharre, Paul (2018). Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War. W.W. Norton & Company.
Singer, P.W., & Cole, August (2015). Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War. Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Brynjolfsson, Erik, & McAfee, Andrew (2016). The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies. W. W. Norton & Company.
Cockburn, Andrew (2015). Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins. Henry Holt and Co.
Sanger, David E. (2018). The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age. Crown.
Ramo, Joshua Cooper (2016). The Seventh Sense: Power, Fortune, and Survival in the Age of Networks. Little, Brown and Company.
Ackerman, Elliot, & Stavridis, James (2021). 2034: A Novel of the Next World War. Penguin Press.
Johnson-Freese, Joan (2020). Space Warfare in the 21st Century: Arming the Heavens. Routledge.
Negnevitsky, Michael (2020). Artificial Intelligence: A Guide to Intelligent Systems. Addison-Wesley.
Valavanis, Kimon P. (2011). Unmanned Aircraft Systems: UAVS Design, Development and Deployment. Wiley.
Jacobsen, Annie (2015). The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency. Little, Brown and Company.
Brose, Christian (2020). The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare. Hachette Books.
Hanson, Robin (2016). The Age of Em: Work, Love, and Life when Robots Rule the Earth. Oxford University Press.
Ackerman, Elliot, & Stavridis, James (2021). 2034: A Novel of the Next World War. Penguin Press.
Brynjolfsson, Erik, & McAfee, Andrew (2016). The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies. W. W. Norton & Company.
Negnevitsky, Michael (2020). Artificial Intelligence: A Guide to Intelligent Systems. Addison-Wesley.
Johnson-Freese, Joan (2020). Space Warfare in the 21st Century: Arming the Heavens. Routledge.
Jacobsen, Annie (2015). The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency. Little, Brown and Company.
Brose, Christian (2020). The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare. Hachette Books.
Hanson, Robin (2016). The Age of Em: Work, Love, and Life when Robots Rule the Earth. Oxford University Press.
Sanger, David E. (2018). The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age. Crown.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: