Dr Mark Lacy, a senior lecturer at Lancaster University, joins me to discuss his book "Theorizing Future Conflict: War Out to 2049." We explore the evolving nature of warfare, focusing on the impact of new technologies like AI, drones, and cyber warfare. Mark highlights the challenges of predicting future conflicts, citing the ongoing war in Ukraine as a case study. He contrasts the liberal and authoritarian ways of war, emphasizing the potential for AI to make warfare more humane and pose significant risks. Mark also discusses the concept of "protopia" and "necropolitics," and the unpredictable nature of technological advancements in warfare.

Questions:

1. Upon the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 2049, what lessons will the PLA have learnt about warfare from today's conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East?

2. Is Bakhmut the 21st Centuries Guernica, with drones representing a revolution in military in military affairs without which a combatant has no hope of winning?

3. In what way do drones manifest the protopian and necropolitical aspects of the liberal way of war?

4. I was struck by your thought experiment Drones Over Aleppo 2042: Terrorism in an Age of AI, with its depictions of granular drones delivering humanitarian aid amidst the lawless liminal space of a sprawling refugee camp while searching for a terrorist leader who taunts the West with atrocity deepfakes and who may in fact be an AI. Drawing on Virilio, is it inevitable that the invention of AI entails the AI incident, where AI escapes our control and turns on us, leading to bitskrieg and cybotage?