Related commentary: Emerging military and security technologies
This backgrounder aims to provide an overview of the military AI industry to help policymakers, as well as civil society and academic researchers, to understand the wide variety of products, actors and relationships involved.
This topical backgrounder discusses how export controls currently apply to AI algorithms, training data and models and how exporters can approach the task of classification.
As states rush to deploy military artificial intelligence capabilities, they should keep in mind that responsible behaviour principles apply even at the procurement stage.
Increasingly capable and autonomous AI systems cooperating at scale could have unpredictable results for international peace and security.
States have varying understandings and practices when it comes to applying export controls to the provision of cyber-surveillance tools under a software-as-a-service model. The potential gaps and loopholes this leaves need to be addressed.
Autonomous weapons systems raise profound questions about the human role in the use of force. How those questions get answered on the international stage, or whether they get answered at all, currently hangs in the balance.
A new generation of quantum technology promises to transform military capabilities and much more. There are profound security implications that demand a coordinated governance response.
This backgrounder examines the EU Dual-use Regulation catch-all control and new guidelines intended to help exporters to comply with it.
Export controls remain the most effective and actively utilized policy response to the risks of proliferation and misuse of cyber-surveillance tools. At the third Summit for Democracy, states have an opportunity to build on work started at last year's summit to strengthen controls.
On 15 November, Russia conducted a direct-ascent anti-satellite (DA-ASAT) test, destroying one of its own space objects, a defunct satellite, in low-earth orbit.
Humankind depends on outer space for numerous services, ranging from telecommunications and navigation to disaster management and national security. While the use of space was once associated only with governments, the private sector has become increasingly involved in providing some of these services.
The states parties to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) are gathering in Geneva from 29 July to 8 August for a series of Meetings of Experts. Among other topics, states are reviewing scientific and technological developments that impact the objectives of the treaty.
New developments in the 3D-printable gun case have revived the debate on the dangers of 3D-printing of firearms and the sharing of their electronic blueprints online. While these developments may only have a limited immediate impact on the proliferation of small arms, this approach has the potential to undermine controls on 3D printing and export controls on technical data more broadly.
Lora Saalman explores the appropriation of cyberspace as the newest domain for hybrid warfare, citing cases of alleged cyber intrusion and attack from Ukraine to the South China Sea.
With cybersecurity become increasingly importand for state security, can it be controlled by traditional security mechanisms?
On 24 February the UN Security Council will debate the issue of organized crime as a threat to international peace. The issue has also been hot in the G8 and regional organizations like the OSCE and ECOWAS. It is also getting a lot of attention in the media. Why is organized crime so high on the political agenda?