A New Arms Race and Global Stability Amandeep Singh Gill
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wo capabilities excite military planners more than anything else: first, the ability to get inside the decision-making loop of an adversary, and stay a step ahead of their responses in a conflict; second, the ability to sense the battle space fully and see what is going on at any place at any time (Hitchens 2019). And nothing makes military planners more jittery than the prospect of body bags, hence the attraction of finding ways to wage “bloodless� wars or do violence at a distance. Artificial intelligence (AI) systems promise them a threefold bounty. First, data from different domains can be fused and weighted in real time by weapons platforms and related decisionsupport systems. Force can thus be applied at a faster tempo. Second, human limitations in digesting sensor inputs, say, live video feeds from a variety of locations, can be overcome for enhanced situational awareness, which could enable tailored and timely application of force for maximum effect. Finally, and perhaps not today but soon, machines can step into front-line combat roles, which mitigates the political implications of human casualties.
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