Can AI make strategic choices, and do they look anything like human ones? Here, we outline our ongoing research into machine decision-making in military scenarios. Using dynamic crisis simulations, we are exploring aspects of strategic theory - including deterrence, compellence and escalation. Early findings point to a distinctive 'machine psychology' that is in some respects similar to humans - with biases and heuristics; but in others very different. 

Join Professor Dr Rahul Mukherji, Modern Politics of South Asia Chair at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, for a lecture and conversation with Professor Maya Tudor, Professor of Politics and Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government.

General Lord Ismay’s name is little known today, but he participated in, and was witness to, decision-making at the highest level of government, before, during and after the Second World War. Immediately prior to the outbreak of hostilities, he was Secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence responsible for advising government on strategy and preparations for war. As wartime Chief Staff Officer to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, he became a close confidant and rarely left Churchill’s side, whether in Britain or abroad at international conferences.

The arrival of Generative AI has transformed all domains of business and is becoming an integral part of society. In this presentation we examine the potential impact in the Defence sector of AI, and in parallel the emerging technologies that are likely to accelerate the process. Specifically, the potential contribution of Quantum Computing and alternative computing paradigms. How will this rapidly evolving field shape the future of geopolitics and combat operations?

Since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China has increasingly relied on private security firms to safeguard its investments and personnel abroad, addressing gaps in its limited power projection capabilities. Unlike Russia’s quasi-PMCs, which engage in militarized covert operations, Chinese private security companies (PSCs) operate with a narrower focus, protecting BRI-related projects without directly deploying the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

The sea is the great global commons and, as Colin Gray pointed out, “Great sea powers or maritime coalitions have either won, or occasionally drawn, every major war in modern history.” But ideas on how to use sea power have not been static. Mahan and Corbett are the names that trip off the tongue, but it was in the Cold War that the ideas we have today were largely formed. This seminar will give a case study of how a set of ideas developed, it will explain a hitherto largely ignored part of Cold War history, and it will suggest how to effectively develop sea power thought in the future.