David Betz: Warfare in the digital age
Channel: Alexander von Humboldt Institut for internet and society
Date: 2022-09-05

War does not change in its nature. Warfare, however, mutates constantly. Belligerents are forever adapting to potential new ways and means of war that technological and social change enables. The industrial and scientific revolution massively accelerated the ‘machinification’ of war, a development which ultimately doomed the European empires. Now, the digital age is here, some say it arrived half a century ago already. What has it changed in the conduct of war?

Since the end of the Cold War there have been many theories to answer this question: Regular war is out! Irregular war is in! Cyberwar is coming! Hybrid war is coming! The current Russo-Ukraine war suggests, though, that these theories are not completely accurate. Warfare in the digital age seems to combine old ways and means with a few new ones in a manner that is proving challenging. This too will be consequential. Perhaps empires are rising and falling again?

David Betz is Professor of War in the Modern World in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. He has written widely on the effect of information technology on war and warfare in recent times, many of these ideas being found in his 2017 book Carnage and Connectivity: Landmarks in the Decline of Conventional Military Power (Hurst). His main interest at present is in the astonishing size, range, and design ingenuity of contemporary fortifications. These reflections will be published in 2023 in his upcoming book The Guarded Age (Polity).

The event took place on Monday 29 August, 7pm at Säälchen – Holzmarktstraße 25, 10243 Berlin 

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