New Technologies and War: Will They Change the Way We Fight? And Why We Fight?

Policy Forum

March 9, 2016 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM EST

Hayek Auditorium

Featuring T. X. Hammes, Distinguished Research Fellow, U.S. National Defense University; with comments by Andrew Philip Hunter, Director, Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group, and Senior Fellow, International Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies; and Jerry Hendrix, Senior Fellow and Director, Defense Strategies and Assessments Program, Center for a New American Security; moderated by Christopher Preble, Vice President, Defense and Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute.

Dramatic improvements in robotics, artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing (3D printing), and nanoenergetics are dramatically changing the character of global conflicts. The convergence of these new and improving technologies increases the capabilities available to smaller and smaller political entities—extending even to the individual. In a new Cato Policy Analysis author T. X. Hammes explores these developments and ponders their impact on U.S. national security. How should policymakers and military planners take these changes into account as they consider future policies? And in what ways do the convergence of technologies and the proliferation of new military capabilities challenge the conventional wisdom surrounding how to fight—and even whether to fight? The author will present his findings, followed by comments and questions from our distinguished panelists.

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