Beyond Ukraine

Across the ages, policymakers, military professionals and scholars have sought answers to the question: what does the future of war look like? Often, when the next war does come along, there is a significant chasm between expectations and reality. Today, some believe that the future of war will be radically different from past conflicts. In recent years, visionaries have conjured up images of robots doing battle on isolated fields and cyber-warriors crafting weapons from zeros and ones. Others emphasise evolution rather than transformation: they picture updated versions of rifle-carrying infantrymen, sailors on ships and pilots in planes, fighting as before. Some focus on technological and organisational factors, or stress the importance of politics, societal developments and international norms. Others examine different types of conflict, as well as the phenomenon of war as a social institution. After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the 'future of war' question has gained renewed urgency, especially as many earlier ideas now require significant revision. In this book, leading experts discuss the impact of the war in Ukraine on strategic studies; they survey landscapes of future war, examine how technological innovation shapes the future of war, and assess our ability to anticipate this future.