Security cameras are recording all steps of the passers-by
whole new security dimension has co-evolved beyond our material realm. Israel realised early on that the push it had been making in high-tech military equipment also creates a significant vulnerability in the cyberspace. Just imagine the aforementioned domestic missile systems and drone fleets turning against their own users, and you can see how Israel has found itself at another paradox of technological development. There are no good solutions to this conundrum, but to carefully balance between the vulnerabilities and opportunities advanced technology provides. Israel has made its mark in this field profoundly with the Stuxnet virus in 2010, which destroyed a significant part of the Iranian uranium enriching centrifuges, setting back the country’s disputed nuclear programme by years. Another current example is the ongoing effort by Israel to utilise cyberspace for pre-empting terrorist attacks by monitoring the social media and other communication channels used by the Palestinian population of the West Bank. However, unlike a generation ago, when security personnel had to actually analyse what potential spies or terrorists said or wrote, Israel is building AI applications to analyse millions of messages
simultaneously and alert human operators only when necessary. Security is in the eye of the beholder: On the one hand, technology might lead to suffocating supervision and the irrelevance of the general population or of countries not possessing the most cutting- edge technologies. On the other hand, by extending the qualitative edge of countries such as Israel, it can mitigate the geographic and demographic constraints of states, and make their defence viable. High-tech technological solutions, which came and continue to come online in Israel, stemming from robotics, AI, advanced algorithms, and other frontier technologies basically, give Israel more options to reach its goals vis-à -vis its adversaries. In a campaign, military or otherwise, the most benefit comes with keeping the most viable options until the endgame. Technology excels the most when it is employed to give options to decision makers—it widens their strategic and tactical palette, thereby providing the physical and/or cyber variant of the coveted manoeuvrability of old armies to those working on the mission, including the political leaders, military commanders, intelligence officers, down to the frontline soldiers, facing the enemy in person. SMART NATIONS
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