Publications

The chapter “War Matrix: Masculine Hegemony, Martial Epistemology and Experimental AI Warfare” critically examines the gendered, epistemic, and political foundations of contemporary AI-enabled warfare. It explores how experimental forms of AI warfare are shaped by militarized cultures of knowledge and power, contributing to the reproduction of existing hierarchies and modes of conflict.

The article “The New AI Arms Complex” examines the emerging alliances between artificial intelligence, military innovation, and the defence sector. It critically explores how AI-driven military technologies, start-ups, and investment networks are reshaping contemporary warfare while raising fundamental political and ethical concerns.

The chapter critically investigates the growing influence of artificial intelligence on contemporary societies through the lens of Science and Technology Studies (STS). It argues that AI is a site where power, knowledge production, and social inequalities are negotiated and reproduced.

This article examines human-machine interactions through the lens of the entanglement between AI and cognitive processes. It questions established notions of responsibility and control in the deployment of military AI and autonomous weapon systems.

This online article challenges the classification of artificial intelligence as a dual-use technology and argues that its potential for violence is inherent in its technical properties. It demonstrates how AI increasingly blurs the boundaries between civilian and military applications.

This dossier sheds light on the complex challenges regarding international AWS regulation, the question of accountability and the social and political consequences that arise from these new types of technology.

The paper has been published open access in the European Journal of International Security. Cite: Hälterlein J. The more-than-human biopolitics of swarming – complexity, emergence, and control in military robotics. European Journal of International Security. Published online 2025:1-18. doi:10.1017/eis.2025.10023

This chapter examines how earlier concepts of network-centric warfare continue to shape imaginaries of autonomous weapon systems. It demonstrates why the importance of networked infrastructures for AI-enabled warfare has received insufficient attention, despite their significance for understanding network-centric approaches to warfare.

The introduction to the Realities of Autonomous Weapons book examines how autonomous weapon systems are represented in politics, popular culture, the media, and academia, and how they are constructed as technological realities. It demonstrates how the interplay between actual technological developments and visions of the future shapes public perceptions of and responses to these technologies.

This chapter examines the significance of artificial intelligence for China's military and security policy and how it is represented in state media. It highlights the discrepancy between the publicly promoted narrative of responsible AI use and its actual use for deterrence and intimidation.

This book examines the social, political, cultural, ethical, and military dimensions of autonomous weapon systems (AWS). It explores the practices through which AWS are constructed in military and political contexts both as technological realities and as visions of the future.

The project team at Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences is delighted to announce a new publication. The publication explores the subject area of our sub-project and explains some of the links between competitive and war scenarios.

The essay, published in the *Handbook on Digital Criminology* (edited by Mareile Kaufmann and Heidi Mork Lomell) in 2025, addresses the question of how algorithm-based machines exert agency and create worlds of their own.

The article "Trump rüstet für den Sci-Fi-Krieg" by Jutta Weber appeared in the fifth issue of 2025 of the weekly newspaper "der Freitag". Bibliographic details: Weber, Jutta: Trump rüstet für den Sci-Fi-Krieg. In: der Freitag 5/2025, p. 13.

We are happy to announce the publication of the report of our conference together with the Disruption Network Lab in Berlin from the 29th of November to the 1st of December 2024. The paper reports on the discussions and presentations at the conference and maps out directions for critical research on algorithmic warfare, showing how the kill cloud impacts the victims of algorithms of violence.

The paper “Meaningful Human Control” and Complex Human-Machine Assemblages – On the Limits of Ethical AI Principles in the Context of Autonomous Weapons Systems by Jens Hälterlein and Jutta Weber has recently been published in the journal “Ethics and Armed Forces”. Bibliographic information: Jens Hälterlein & Jutta Weber: “Meaningful Human Control” and Complex Human-Machine Assemblages – On the Limits of Ethical AI Principles in the Context of Autonomous Weapons Systems. In: Ethics and Armed Forces, 1/2024, pp. 52-59.

This chapter examines the destruction of Iran Air Flight 655 in 1988 and the different interpretations of the incident within debates on autonomous weapon systems. It demonstrates how the role of technical interfaces shapes automation and human control in weapon systems.

Focusing on China and the United States, this chapter examines how autonomous weapon systems are politically interpreted and instrumentalised in their military strategies to advance national interests. It demonstrates how inconsistent definitions and contradictory narratives complicate international regulatory efforts and serve to legitimise geopolitical power claims.