Future War: Preparing for the New Global Battlefield

by Robert H. Latiff

Overview

An urgent, prescient, and expert look at how future technology will change virtually every aspect of war as we know it and how we can respond to the serious national security challenges ahead.

Future war is almost here: battles fought in cyberspace; biologically enhanced soldiers; autonomous systems that can process information and strike violently before a human being can blink.
     A leading expert on the place of technology in war and intelligence, Robert H. Latiff, now teaching at the University of Notre Dame, has spent a career in the military researching and developing new combat technologies, observing the cost of our unquestioning embrace of innovation. At its best, advanced technology acts faster than ever to save the lives of soldiers; at its worst, the deployment of insufficiently considered new technology can have devastating unintended or long-term consequences. The question of whether we can is followed, all too infrequently, by the question of whether we should.
     In Future War, Latiff maps out the changing ways of war and the weapons technologies we will use to fight them, seeking to describe the ramifications of those changes and what it will mean in the future to be a soldier. He also recognizes that the fortunes of a nation are inextricably linked with its national defense, and how its citizens understand the importance of when, how, and according to what rules we fight. What will war mean to the average American? Are our leaders sufficiently sensitized to the implications of the new ways of fighting? How are the attitudes of individuals and civilian institutions shaped by the wars we fight and the means we use to fight them? And, of key importance: How will soldiers themselves think about war and their roles within it?
     The evolving, complex world of conflict and technology demands that we pay more attention to the issues that will confront us, before it is too late to control them. Decrying what he describes as a "broken" relationship between the military and the public it serves, Latiff issues a bold wake-up call to military planners and weapons technologists, decision makers, and the nation as a whole as we prepare for a very different future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101971802
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/18/2018
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	1,127,830
Product dimensions:	5.15(w) x 7.98(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

DR. ROBERT H. LATIFF retired from the U.S. Air Force as a major general in 2006. He is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Notre Dame and is the director of Intelligence Community Programs at George Mason University's School of Engineering. Latiff is a member of the Air Force Studies Board and the Intelligence Community Studies Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He lives in Alexandria, VA.

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

1 The New Face of War 17

2 How We Got to Now 64

3 Effects of Future War on the Soldier 91

4 Society and the Military 122

5 Where Do We Go from Here? 144

A Concluding Plea 159

Acknowledgments 163

Notes 165

Index 181

Editorial Reviews

[Robert H. Latiff’s] background as a weapons expert and trained philosopher gives him unique skills to examine the subject of war, technology, and ethics. . . . Readers interested in the future of warfare and evolving technologies will relish this thought-provoking account.” —Library Journal

“A cautionary and chilling consideration of how wars will be conducted in the near future.” —Booklist (starred review)

“A thoughtful and thought-provoking book that addresses a range of political and sociological issues beyond what the title Future War infers.  It comports with the highest tradition of ‘truth to power.’ A compelling book.” —Honorable James R. Clapper, former U.S. Director of National Intelligence

“In a lucid and powerful volume, Robert Latiff outlines what is coming in the conduct of global conflict—from cyber to bioengineering, from artificial intelligence to stealth. His vision is clear and his message chilling: a must read for strategists and military practitioners.” —Adm. James Stavridis, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander

“Future War is a cri de coeur by an eminently qualified author urgently calling us to our senses to recognize the leaching of ethics and humanity from an increasingly autonomic and remote form of warfare. A must read.” —Vint Cerf, co-inventor of the Internet

“'Our nation has a serious problem,' Robert Latiff writes in Future War. 'Technology is moving so fast that few can understand it.' This is the core challenge to which the author brings his valuable twin perspective as an Air Force general and a teacher on ethics and values. His book is a useful guide to weighing the many dilemmas that won’t go away anytime soon, the moral implications of our changing weapons and changing wars." —P. W. Singer, author of Ghost Fleet

From the Publisher

08/28/2017
Latiff, a retired U.S. Air Force general with a background in military weapons systems, emphasizes the need to understand the moral and ethical dimensions of the development of sophisticated military technologies and to craft policy with the potential dilemmas these technologies could cause in mind. He cautions that technology is addictive and seductive, and that human societies have a history of developing technologies without adequately thinking about the consequences. Latiff sees future wars being fought largely by armies of robots; humans will play a part in future war, but it will increasingly be through remote control. He also believes that new technologies will affect future soldiers, who will be isolated from their wider societies and biologically enhanced to be stronger, faster, and smarter than their nonmilitary peers. The nature of the future battlefield and warrior, he contends, will make war more brutal than ever. Latiff states that education, understanding, and expertise on military matters and science must be shared by all segments of society, particularly by the U.S. civilian population, media, and political leadership, as a bulwark against the relentless tide of technological advancement. This is a quick and stimulating read, and its focus on ethics makes it an important part of the growing literature related to managing the continuing acceleration of technological development. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

09/01/2017
Retired U.S. Air Force general Latiff (director, Intelligence & Security Research Ctr., George Mason Univ.) sounds an alarm about the lack of understanding from both the public and politicians on the nature of the swift technological advancement in modern American combat. The author argues that technological change is proceeding at an almost unimaginable pace, including the biological enhancement of warfighters, drones, robots, and advanced cyberwarfare techniques. Latiff also suggests that policymakers are not considering the ethical dimensions of these changes on American soldiers and war opponents. Finally, he is concerned that the increasing divide between military and civilian societies negatively affects the American principle that the military should reflect the country's deeply held values and views. His background as a weapons expert and trained philosopher gives him unique skills to examine the subject of war, technology, and ethics. VERDICT Readers interested in the future and ethics of warfare and evolving military technologies will relish this thought-provoking account.—Mark Jones, Mercantile Lib., Cincinnati

Library Journal

2017-06-15
Despite a title that sounds like science fiction, this is a down-to-earth look at the problems facing the American military, now and in years to come.Latiff is a retired Air Force major general and is the director of Intelligence Community Programs at George Mason University. He spent much of his service time researching new weapons technology, and in the opening chapters, he features some of the recent creations and what they may be once they are ready for the battlefield. Readers will get a solid nontechnical overview of developments in such fields as robotics, drones, biotechnology, and genetics, with hints of their possible applications to battlefield situations. Among the things the future may hold: a pill that lets soldiers forget traumatic combat experiences and, as a result, avoid PTSD and a drone capable of deciding on its own, in milliseconds, whether a potential target is a threat that it should eliminate. But Latiff is interested in more than the tactical implications. He puts particular stress on the ethical dimensions they call up: whether deleting a memory is an intrusion on the soldier's personal integrity and whether life-and-death decisions should be entrusted to machines without a human in the loop. Already, we are seeing how drone pilots, often far removed from the targets they strike, can be traumatized by the choices they face. The author contends that the general detachment of most Americans from military matters—with an all-volunteer Army, few families have any personal stake in whether the nation goes to war—enables politicians to promote military solutions to any foreign policy issue or to vote for bloated defense budgets to boost employment in their districts. Latiff also calls out senior officers who inhabit a bubble populated only by other military personnel. This cleareyed focus on the larger dimensions of the military enterprise raises the book above the narrowly technical discussion of new weapons and the tactics they require. A well-written, thoughtful discussion of the broader issues raised by the introduction of futuristic technology to war.

Kirkus Reviews