The WarPod

Dr. Ingvild Bode, Associate Professor at the Center for War Studies and Principal Investigator of the AutoNorms project, speaks to Denise Garcia, Professor at Northeastern University in Boston. Prof. Garcia delivered the 2022 CWS Annual Lecture, where she presented her forthcoming book "Common Good Governance in the Age of Military Artificial Intelligence"(Oxford University Press). The book examines the complexities entailed in establishing a global framework to govern the military use of AI by proposing inclusive and humane ways to forge cooperation. In this WarPod Prof. Garcia discusses what inspired her to write this book as well as why she chose this particular approach towards the study of patterns and trends in the militarization of AI.

The Center for War Studies’ Ingvild Bode speaks to Dr. Katherine Chandler, Assistant Professor of Culture and Politics at Georgetown University, about her report “Does Military AI Have Gender?” published by UNIDIR. Dr. Chandler’s research examines the intersection between technology, media and socio-politics. In this WarPod she talks about the gender dimension of studying military applications of artificial intelligence and the representations of technologies in popular culture.

Picture: Alina Constantin / Better Images of AI / Handmade A.I / CC-BY 4.0

The WarPod talks to Anna Nadibaidze, Vincent Keating, Pål Røren and Guyangyu Qiao-Franco to shed a light on the various consequences that the Russian invasion has had for Russia. Both internally and what consequences it has had for the Russian people, but also how the invasion has affected Russia’s international relations, including Russia’s relationship with China.

The WarPod talks to Christoph O. Meyer, Chiara De Franco, and Florian Otto about their book "Warning about War: Conflict, Persuasion and Foreign Policy" published with Cambridge University press. The book won this year's best book award from the International Studies Association, and has now been released as paperback. What does it take for warnings about violent conflict and war to be listened to, believed and acted upon? Why are warnings from some sources noticed and largely accepted, while others are ignored or disbelieved? Listen in to get an insight into how the book addresses these questions and to hear more about its three authors.

Once it is in stock, our listeners will be able to purchase the book at a discount at www.cambridge.org/9781108713931 - enter code POL3021 at the checkout for a 20 percent discount (valid until July 2022).

The WarPod talks to Jeppe Teglskov Jacobsen about the puzzling public use of cyber weapons against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The effectiveness of cyber weapons depends on enemies being unaware of them. Why then, did the US military make their attacks available to the public?

The WarPod talks to Danita Catherine Burke about perceptions of sovereignty in the disputed Arctic region. Though no one officially owns the arctic (and its waterways), Danita discusses how Canadians have developed a strong narrative of ownership of the Arctic validated by folk lore and the drawing of territorial lines on maps. The importance of such narratives is likely to increase as climate change alters the geography of the region.

The WarPod talks to Vincent Keating about the fact that Russia, not only has a lotof guns, tanks, and nuclear bombs, it also generates a lot of admiration around the world; it has soft power. In contrast to the common held belief, Vincent suggests that the soft power of Russia is awesome and has actually aided Russia in achieving its foreign policy goals in the last couple of decades.